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, He was the vocals for 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 Kerr 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 Bryndle 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’.
Men age 40+ are a high risk for heart disease. For more details on heart disease visit the National Heart Foundation of Australia website.
Update: Andrew Gold's daughter Emily shares her thoughts about her father
