Never Let Her Slip Away

Gold wrote it and produced it with Brock Walsh on Asylum, with "Genevieve" on the B-side; it came out in March 1978 in the UK and June in the US, as the album's fourth single, at 3:23 against 3:29 on the album. He sings lead and backing vocals and plays synthesizer and percussion, Ernie Watts plays the saxophone, and Timothy B. Schmit, JD Souther and Walsh sing backing vocals. In the video, Gold, Stan Kipper, Brian Garafalo and George Marinelli face each other clapping while the camera pans, and Walsh mimes the sax solo. It reached 5 in the UK, 2 in Ireland, 14 in Flanders, 15 in the Netherlands, 55 in Australia and 67 on the Hot 100, and BPI certified it Silver.

It has long been reported that Freddie Mercury sang uncredited backing vocals; Far Out reports that in 2012 a representative for Gold said he had never mentioned working with Queen or Mercury and that the vinyl insert did not list him, so we treat it as an unverified rumor. Dave Grohl, talking to Marc Maron in 2013, called it the most beautiful piece of music ever written. Undercover's cover, produced by Steve Mac for PWL and released on November 2, 1992 on Check Out the Groove, reached 5 in the UK, 2 in Ireland and 3 in Belgium. Trevor Walters recorded it in 1984, Tight Fit in 2010, and Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer in 1995; it is Alan Partridge's favorite in Alpha Papa (2013). Setlist.fm lists 56 Andrew Gold setlists, eight of them on a 1978 US tour, and we could not get a count for this song.