Andrew Gold

The session player who sang

Andrew Maurice Gold was born on August 2, 1951 in Burbank, California; he died on June 3, 2011 in Los Angeles, aged 59. A multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, producer, engineer, film composer and painter, he began writing songs at thirteen, and at sixteen, at school in the UK, won a contract with Polydor's London office; "Of All the Little Girls" (1967) was released as Villiers and Gold with Charlie Villiers. In Los Angeles he was part of the group Bryndle with Kenny Edwards, Wendy Waldman and Karla Bonoff, and the Floating House Band, and from 1973 to 1977 he played in Linda Ronstadt's band.

For Ronstadt he played on Heart Like a Wheel (1974), played most of the instruments on her only US number one, "You're No Good", and on "When Will I Be Loved" and "(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave", and co-wrote "Try Me Again". He also played most instruments on Art Garfunkel's "I Only Have Eyes for You" (UK number one), played guitar on Eric Carmen's Boats Against the Current (1977) and co-wrote Wynonna Judd's "I Saw the Light". His solo albums began with Andrew Gold (1975), then What's Wrong with This Picture? (1976), which held "Lonely Boy", a number 7 on the Hot 100 in June 1977. All This and Heaven Too (April 15, 1978) followed, then Whirlwind (1980); he produced and co-wrote three tracks on 10cc's Ten Out of 10 (1981 and 1982).

In late 1983 he formed Wax with 10cc's Graham Gouldman; they made Magnetic Heaven (1986), American English (1987) and A Hundred Thousand in Fresh Notes (1989), and "Bridge to Your Heart" reached 12 in the UK. He sang the Mad About You theme, and his version was used as the wake-up call for the Mars Pathfinder in 1996. Halloween Howls (1996) includes "Spooky, Scary Skeletons", which became an internet meme; New York magazine called it the internet's Halloween anthem in 2019. A posthumous album, Something New: Unreleased Gold, appeared in 2020. His official biography quotes the producer Peter Asher calling his talent almost eerie.