Andrew Gold

Born on August 2, 1951, in Burbank, California, American singer-songwriter and producer Andrew Gold is often credited with helping shape the landscape of the '70s soft rock scene. The son of Austrian-born composer Ernest Gold and singer Marni Nixon, he began writing songs at the age of 13 and later joined the LA-based group Bryndle alongside Kenny Edwards, Wendy Waldman, and Karla Bonoff. In the years that followed, Andrew Gold became one of the most sought-after musicians on the West Coast, doing session work for the likes of James Taylor, Carly Simon, and Loudon Wainwright III, and serving as an arranger on Linda Ronstadt's classic LPs Heart Like a Wheel (1974) and Prisoner in Disguise (1975). Even though his eponymous studio debut appeared in 1975, it was his sophomore effort, 1976's What's Wrong with This Picture? that propelled him to fame as a songwriter thanks to the hit "Lonely Boy," which climbed to Number 7 on the Billboard 200. This success was followed by other hits such as "I'm on My Way," "Thank You for Being a Friend," and "Never Let Her Slip Away," all included in his 1978 third album All This and Heaven Too. Throughout the '80s, he released the album Whirlwind and spent most of his time recording on albums by Bob Dylan, Art Garfunkel, Burt Bacharach, and Cher. During this time, he also teamed up with 10cc's Graham Gouldman to form the group Wax, which released three albums between 1986 and 1998. Over the following decades, Andrew Gold spent some time behind the console on tracks by Vince Gill, Celine Dion, and Stephen Bishop, but also issued the albums Halloween Howls (1996), ...Since 1951 (1996), Greetings from Planet Love (1997), Warm Breezes (1999), The Spence Manor Suite (2000), Intermission (2002), and Copy Cat (2008), his last studio effort before succumbing to cancer on June 3, 2011.