Andrew Gold

Andrew Maurice Gold (August 2, 1951 – June 3, 2011) was an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and record producer who influenced much of the Los Angeles-dominated pop/soft rock sound in the 1970s.

Gold was born on August 2, 1951, in Burbank, California, and eventually followed his parents into show business.

His mother was singer Marni Nixon, who provided the singing voice for numerous actresses, notably Natalie Wood in West Side Story, Deborah Kerr in The King and I, and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady; his father was Ernest Gold, an Austrian-born composer who won an Academy Award for his score for the movie Exodus.

He had two younger sisters.

Gold began writing songs at the age of 13.

While in school in the United Kingdom for one year, the 16-year-old Gold scored his first recording contract on the strength of a selection of demos he submitted to Polydor Records' London office.

The same year, he released the solo album ....Since 1951, and produced Stephen Bishop's Blue Guitar album.

Thereafter, he recorded the psychedelic '60s tribute album Greetings from Planet Love under the pseudonym "The Fraternal Order of the All," releasing it on his own record label, "QBrain Records."

That contract resulted in the single "Of All the Little Girls", which was recorded with his friend and collaborator Charlie Villiers, and released in 1967 under the name Villiers and Gold.

By the early 1970s, Gold was working full-time as a musician, songwriter and record producer.

He was a member of the Los Angeles band Bryndle, alongside Kenny Edwards, Wendy Waldman and Karla Bonoff, releasing the single "Woke Up This Morning" in 1970.

He was in her band from 1973 until 1977, and then sporadically throughout the 1980s and 1990s, performing at some of her concerts.

He played a major role as multi-instrumentalist and arranger for Linda Ronstadt's breakthrough album, 1974's Heart Like a Wheel, and her next two albums.

After Ronstadt's Hasten Down the Wind, Gold began a career as a solo artist.

Among other accomplishments, he played the majority of instruments on "You're No Good", Ronstadt's only No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100, and on "When Will I Be Loved", "(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave", and many other hits.

In 1975, Gold debuted as a solo artist, with the album Andrew Gold, and played most of the instruments on Art Garfunkel's solo hit "I Only Have Eyes For You" (which was a major hit in the United Kingdom, where it topped the UK Singles Chart), as well as several other cuts on Garfunkel's album Breakaway.

Gold's second studio album, What's Wrong with This Picture?, was released in 1976 and featured the hit single "Lonely Boy", which reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 1977.

Gold performed on scores of records by other artists, especially Linda Ronstadt, and had his own success with the U.S. top 40 hits "Lonely Boy" (1977) and "Thank You for Being a Friend" (1978), as well as the UK top five hit "Never Let Her Slip Away" (1978).

In 1977, Gold also played guitar on two cuts of Eric Carmen's album Boats Against the Current, including "She Did It", a No. 23 hit that year.

Although "Lonely Boy" was the bigger radio hit in the States, the single "Thank You for Being a Friend" from Gold's third album, All This and Heaven Too, peaked at No. 25 in 1978, later gaining popularity as the theme song for The Golden Girls, performed by Cindy Fee.

Gold's biggest hit in the United Kingdom was "Never Let Her Slip Away", which peaked at number five on the UK Singles Chart on two occasions, firstly by Gold himself in 1978 and again by dance-pop group Undercover in 1992.

Freddie Mercury, a friend of Gold's, was an uncredited background singer.

Gold also toured with the Eagles, worked in the studio and toured with Ronstadt and Jackson Browne, recorded and toured with James Taylor, and was second engineer on part of Joni Mitchell's album Blue.

In the 1980s, he had further international chart success as one half of Wax, a collaboration with 10cc's Graham Gouldman.

In 1981, Gold produced, co-wrote, sang and played on three 10cc tracks that appeared on the hit-making pop-rock band's 1981 album Ten Out of 10.

Subsequently, Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman of 10cc invited Gold to become a member of the group.

Although he had worked with them in the studio, business conflicts prevented him from joining their ranks.

In late 1983, 10cc broke up, and in the aftermath, Gold and Gouldman formed Wax.

Wax recorded and toured for five years.

They enjoyed international success, particularly in the UK, where the duo had several hits including "Right Between the Eyes" and their biggest hit, "Bridge to Your Heart".

(Later, Gold would produce Angelle on her own album, which featured a number of songs on whose authorship and composition they collaborated.) He also produced singles for Vince Gill, wrote and produced tracks for Celine Dion, and arranged a cover of The Everly Brothers' hit "All I Have to Do Is Dream" that was sung by stars Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen in the 1984 science-fiction film Starman.

Gold played on Cher's hit 1989 album Heart of Stone and, during the early '90s, wrote and composed hits for Trisha Yearwood as well as Wynonna Judd, for whom he co-wrote the No. 1 single "I Saw The Light" with Lisa Angelle.

Wax broke up as a recording and touring entity in 1989, but Gold and Gouldman continued to write and record together whenever possible.

During the 1990s, Gold produced, composed, performed on and wrote tracks for films, commercials, and television soundtracks, such as "Final Frontier", the theme of the sitcom Mad About You.

In the 1990s, Gold once again joined forces with ex-bandmates Karla Bonoff, Wendy Waldman and Kenny Edwards to re-form Bryndle and release their first full-length album, Bryndle.

Some of his older works experienced newfound popularity: "Thank You for Being a Friend" sung by another performer was used as the opening theme for The Golden Girls, and the children's novelty song "Spooky, Scary Skeletons" (1996) became an Internet meme in the 2010s.

In 1996, Gold left Bryndle and released the children's Halloween-oriented novelty album Halloween Howls.

In 1997, Gold released a tribute to 1960s psychedelic music, Greetings from Planet Love, issued under the pseudonym "the Fraternal Order of the All".

It features covers of "Monster Mash" and the themes from The Addams Family and Ghostbusters, plus nine original songs, including "Spooky, Scary Skeletons", which regained popularity from the 2010s onwards as an Internet meme.

He died in 2011 aged 59 from heart failure.