Andrew Gold, American singer-songwriter ("Lonely Boy", "Thank You for Being a Friend"), died from a heart attack he was , 59

Andrew Maurice Gold  was an American singer, musician and songwriter died from a heart attack he was , 59. His works include the Top 10 single "Lonely Boy" (1977), as well as the singles "Thank You for Being a Friend" (1978), and "Never Let Her Slip Away" (1978).
His rendition of the theme from the television series Mad About You, titled "Final Frontier," was used as the wake-up call for the Mars Pathfinder space probe in 1996.
Gold was a prolific multi-instrumentalist as artist, producer, film composer, session musician, actor, painter, and singer.

(August 2, 1951 – June 3, 2011)

Early life

Andrew Maurice Gold was born in Burbank, California,^[1] and later joined a family business. His mother is 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, the Academy Award-winning composer for the movie Exodus.^[4] He has two younger sisters. Gold began writing songs at the age of 13.

Career

1970-1979

By the early 1970s he was working as a musician, songwriter and record producer for many musicians. He was a member of the Los Angeles band Bryndle alongside Kenny Edwards, Wendy Waldman and Karla Bonoff. He played a major role as multi-instrumentalist and arranger for Ronstadt's breakthrough album, 1974's Heart Like a Wheel, and her next four albums. Among other accomplishments, he played the majority of instruments on the album's first track, including the guitar work on "You're No Good," Ronstadt's first #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100, and the same on "When Will I Be Loved", "Heatwave", and many others. He was in her band from 1973 until 1977, and then sporadically throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
In 1975, Gold began recording as a solo artist, releasing four studio albums in the 1970s and over twelve since then. His hit single "Lonely Boy" reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in June, 1977^[5] and has appeared in many film soundtracks, including Boogie Nights (1997) and Adam Sandler's movie Water Boy, among others. Although "Lonely Boy" was the bigger radio hit in the States, his single "Thank You For Being A Friend" (which peaked at #25 in 1978^[6]) later gained popularity as the theme song for the 1985–1992 NBC situation comedy The Golden Girls (performed by Cindy Fee for the show). Gold is also known for his biggest UK hit song "Never Let Her Slip Away", which was a UK #5 hit twice, by him and again at #5 fourteen years later by Undercover. Freddie Mercury, who was a friend of Gold's, assisted him with the harmony background vocals of the song. Gold was pleased that Petula Clark covered 'Lonely Boy' in French ('Poor Lonesome Playboy'). It is on her 'Paris, Orleans, Paris' set. He attended one of her performances and reminded her that she had recorded the song. In 1976 Gold wrote the title track 'Endless Flight' for Leo Sayer's hit album.
1975 also marked a successful collaboration with Art Garfunkel, playing most of the instruments on Garfunkel's solo hit "I Only Have Eyes For You" (which went to no.1 on the UK Singles Chart), as well as several other cuts on Garfunkel's album Breakaway, and Gold played guitar on two cuts of Eric Carmen's, Boats Against the Current album, including "She Did It", which was a #23 hit that same year.^[7] Throughout the years, he played and/or sang on records and/or live performances with Carly Simon, Jennifer Warnes, Stephen Bishop, Nicolette Larson, Maria Muldaur, Neil Diamond, Barbi Benton, Juice Newton, Leo Sayer, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Karla Bonoff, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, Brian Wilson, Don Henley, Cher's hit album, Heart of Stone, wrote hits for Trisha Yearwood, Wynonna Judd, for whom he co-wrote the #1 single "I Saw The Light" with Lisa Angelle, who he later produced in her own right. He toured with The Eagles, played on records and toured with Jackson Browne, produced, wrote and sang/played on three 10cc tracks; played and sang on record, and toured with James Taylor, produced singles for Vince Gill, and wrote and produced for Celine Dion; was second engineer on part of Joni Mitchell's Blue album.

1980-2011

In the early 1980s, after 10cc's 1981 album Ten Out of 10 was completed, founding members Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman invited Gold to become a member. Although he was a fan of "I'm Not In Love" and "The Things We Do for Love", and wanted to join, business conflicts prevented him from doing so. In late 1983, 10cc broke up, but Gold and Gouldman formed Wax. Wax recorded and toured for five years, enjoying success worldwide and had several top 10 hits including "Right Between the Eyes", and their biggest hit "Bridge to Your Heart". In 1986, interestingly, the duo had a #1 hit in Spain, lasting 6 months on top, and in a bizarre record company decision, no further singles were released there. The band broke up in 1989, but Gold and Gouldman continued to write and record together when possible.
During the 1990s Gold once again joined forces with bandmates Karla Bonoff, Wendy Waldman and Kenny Edwards to re-form Bryndle and release their first album. In 1996, he left Bryndle and released, Halloween Howls, considered by Dr. Demento as one of the two best Halloween albums in history.The same year he recorded under a pseudonym, The Fraternal Order Of The All, "Greetings from Planet Love" on his own record label, QBrain Records. This album utilized a fake 1960s band, with original songs in the style of Gold's favorite 1960s bands, such as The Beatles, The Byrds and The Beach Boys. He released a rareties Wax album, Bikini Wax, and the same year he released ....Since 1951. He has since also produced, composed, and/or written songs for numerous films, such as the comedy Rectuma from director Mark Pirro and contributed songs for many television soundtracks and commercials. He also sang "Final Frontier", the theme song for the Paul Reiser/Helen Hunt sitcom Mad About You. He produced seven albums for Eikichi Yazawa.

Personal life

Gold married Vanessa Gold (step sister of Billy Brown http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchestra_JB) with whom he had three daughters.^[4] After his divorce, he married Leslie Kogan.^[4]
Although Gold put personal references in "Lonely Boy" (1975) including his year of birth, he told Spencer Leigh in an interview that it was not autobiographical: "Maybe it was a mistake to do that but I simply put in those details because it was convenient. I hadn't been a lonely boy at all – I'd had a very happy childhood."^[8]

Death

On June 3, 2011, Gold died in his sleep, apparently from heart failure,^[1] at age 59 (two months before his 60th birthday) in Los Angeles after having been treated for renal cancer.^[4] He is survived by Kogan, his three daughters and his mother, Marni Nixon.^[9]

Discography

Albums

• 1975: Andrew Gold
• 1976: What's Wrong with This Picture? (95 US)
• 1978: All This and Heaven Too (81 US)(#31 UK)^[10]
• 1978: An Interview with Andrew Gold [Promo-only interview & music LP]
• 1979: Whirlwind
• 1991: Home is Where the Heart Is
• 1996: ...Since 1951
• 1996: Halloween Howls (as Andrew Gold & Friends)
• 1997: Thank You for Being a Friend (compilation album)
• 1998: Leftovers
• 1998: Warm Breezes
• 2000: The Spence Manor Suite
• 2002: Intermission
• 2008: Copy Cat

With Wax

• 1984: Common Knowledge
• 1986: Magnetic Heaven
• 1987: American English
• 1989: A Hundred Thousand in Fresh Notes
• 1997: The Wax Files ('Best of' compilation)
• 2000: Wax Bikini (Compilation of outtakes, demos, etc.)

With Bryndle

• 1995: Bryndle

Singles

• 1968: "Of All The Little Girls" (UK release - recorded as duo of 'Villiers & Gold')
• 1970: "Woke Up This Morning" (with the band 'Bryndle')
• 1975: "Heartaches in Heartaches"
• 1975: "That Is Why I Love You" (#68 US)
• 1976: "Stay"
• 1976: "Do Wah Diddy"
• 1976: "One Of Them Is Me"
• 1977: "Lonely Boy" (#7 US; #11 UK)^[10]
• 1977: "Go Back Home Again"
• 1978: "How Can This Be Love" (#19 UK)^[10]
• 1978: "I'm On My Way"
• 1978: "Thank You for Being a Friend" (#25 US; #42 UK)^[10]
• 1978: "Never Let Her Slip Away" (#67 US; #5 UK)^[10]
• 1979: "Kiss This One Goodbye"
• 1979: "Stranded On The Edge"
• 1979: "Nine To Five" (UK)

With Graham Gouldman as WAX;

• 1984: "Don't Break My Heart" (UK - Released under the band's initial name of World In Action)
• 1984: "Don't Break My Heart" (UK - Re-released under the band's subsequent name of Common Knowledge)
• 1985: "Victoria" (UK - Released under the band name of Common Knowledge)
• 1986: "Right Between The Eyes" (#60 UK )^[11]
• 1986: "Ball & Chain"
• 1986: "Shadows Of Love"
• 1986: "Systematic" (UK)
• 1987: "Bridge to Your Heart" (#12 UK)^[11]
• 1987: "In Some Other World" (UK & Germany)
• 1987: "American English" (Germany)
• 1989: "Anchors Aweigh" (UK)
• 1989: "Wherever You Are" (UK)

He had a worldwide #5 (average) hit in over 5 major countries^{[vague][clarification needed]} with "Bridge To Your Heart", and a #43 album in the US, Magnetic Heaven.
Some singles released as promo copies only; some chart numbers are from the magazines Cashbox and Record World.

 

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