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.[1] 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 the 1980s, he had further international chart success as one half of Wax, a collaboration with 10cc's Graham Gouldman.
Andrew Gold
Andrew Maurice Gold
August 2, 1951
Burbank, California, U.S.
June 3, 2011 (aged 59)
Los Angeles, California
- Musician
- singer-songwriter
- music producer
- Vocals
- keyboards
- guitar
- drums
1967–2011
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. 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 1997, Gold released a tribute to 1960s psychedelic music, Greetings from Planet Love, issued under the pseudonym "the Fraternal Order of the All".[2][3] He died in 2011 aged 59 from heart failure.
Early life[edit]
Gold was born on August 2, 1951, in Burbank, California,[1][4] 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.[5] 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. 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.[6]
Career[edit]
1970s[edit]
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 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. He was in her band from 1973 until 1977, and then sporadically throughout the 1980s and 1990s, performing at some of her concerts.
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.[7]
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.[8]
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,[9] 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.[10]
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.[11]
Legacy[edit]
In the early 2010s, Gold's song "Spooky Scary Skeletons" became the subject of Halloween-related Internet memes through its popularity on 4chan's video games board.[15] Within a few years, the song turned into a viral phenomenon, with numerous highly viewed remixes and dance tutorials for it being posted on YouTube; it was described by New York magazine in 2019 as the "Internet's Halloween anthem".[16] The YouTuber Dave Wave released a very popular remix of the song that was later published on Spotify by the Craft Recordings. The song also became highly popular on the social media site TikTok, with videos including it receiving several hundred million views.[17] By 2019, the popularity of "Spooky Scary Skeletons" had inspired a deluxe digital release of Halloween Howls. This version of the album included the addition of two extended electronic dance remixes of "Spooky Scary Skeletons."
In 2020, an early version of Gold's song "Savannah" was issued as a digital single. It was followed by Something New: Unreleased Gold – a posthumous compilation album of previously unavailable tracks, including some demos – in vinyl, CD and digital formats, along with two digital singles from the album: the title song and "Come Down to Me."[18]
Personal life and death[edit]
Gold's first marriage was to Vanessa Gold, with whom he had three daughters, Emily, Victoria, and Olivia.[1]
In the early 1980s, Gold was engaged to singer Nicolette Larson; this ended shortly after the completion of Larson's 1982 album All Dressed Up and No Place to Go, which Gold produced.
He later married Leslie Kogan, who continues to manage his musical legacy.[19]
Although Gold put personal references in the lyrics to "Lonely Boy" (including his year of birth), he said in an interview with author Spencer Leigh that the song was not autobiographical. "Maybe it was a mistake to do that", he said, "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."[2]
Gold was diagnosed with kidney cancer and responded well to treatment. However, on June 3, 2011, he died in his sleep from heart failure at age 59 in Los Angeles.[1]