Posted on 06/04/2011 7:12:23 PM PDT by raccoonradio
Singer / songwriter Andrew Gold has died at the age of 59 from a heart attack.
Gold was best known for his 1977 hit ‘Lonely Boy’ and 1978’s ‘Thank You For Being A Friend’, the later became the theme for the hit TV series The Golden Girls that ran from 1985-1992.
Gold continued in TV writing the theme song for ‘Mad About You’ known as ‘Final Frontier’.
Andrew Gold was born in Burbank. His mother Marni Nixon was the singing voice for many Hollywood actresses. She was the real singer for Natalie Wood in ‘West Side Story’, Deborah Karr in ‘The King And I’ and Audrey Hepburn in ‘My Fair Lady’. His father Ernest Gold was an Academy Award winning composer. He wrote the music for ‘Exodus’.
Gold’s first band Bryndie featured Kenny Edwards, Wendy Waldman and Karla Bonoff. He worked closely with Linda Ronstadt as multi-instrumentalist on five of her albums from 1974’s ‘Heart Like A Wheel’ and onwards.
His big hit ‘Lonely Boy’ was featured in the movies ‘Boogie Nights’ and ‘The Waterboy’.
Andrew Gold worked with Art Garfunkel on the ‘Breakaway’ album. He played every instrument on Art’s solo hit ‘I Only Have Eyes For You’. He also played guitar and drums on Eric Carmen’s ‘She Did It’.
Andrew has sung on records or played live with three of the four Beatles, Paul McCartney, John Lennon and Ringo Starr and has toured with the Eagles and Jackson Browne.
A big 10CC fan, after the band broke up in the 80’s Gold formed Wax with Graham Goldman. They were together for 5 years and delivered the hits ‘Right Between Your Eyes’ and ‘Bridge To Your Heart’.
No mention yet of his death on any real news sites. Maybe it’s not true?
I grew up singing Lonely Boy. And TYFBAF has been used in our family’s funerals.
Rest in Peace, Andrew. I know you were a liberal in your politics, but God blessed you with a wonderful musical gift. And your presence made a difference in my life.
I loved Andrew Gold’s solo work and his work with Bryndle. 59 is too young of an age to die.
Oh man, he was way too young! I did enjoy his music.
This guy was a great talent.
RIP
RIP, quite a resume. That Golden Girls theme is probably one of the more successful TV openers.
Gold played every instrument on Art Garfunkel’s cover, ‘I Only Have Eyes For You’ in 1975. Below is the link to a very good HD remix of that great recording. By the way, Art turned 70 a few weeks ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yrl3T8MaX8E
I was a kid (8) in 1977, but remember the song well at the pool where they played Top 40 all day. rip
Not as good as the original by the FLAMINGOES, which, if I recall correctly, was done in one take.
I wore out several copies of ‘Lonely Boy’ in the late 70’s while working at a small town AM station in Illinois....
I like Art’s better. It may be a generational thing.
Good heavens. Loved his stuff.
>>> That Golden Girls theme is probably one of the more successful TV openers.
Perhaps but it doesn’t hold a candle to the Pruitts of Southampton.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=—fk7HzTipI
No! top 10 radio in Chicago.
And when I say top 10, I mean 10 songs is about all they ever played.
3 hours at the pool and I probably heard Rhinestone Cowboy 5 times.
Do that 2-3-5 days in a week, throughout the summer.
I agree.
Oh, to be young again, but to have the smarts YOU have now.
Love your tagline. LOL.
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