Andrew Gold R.I.P.

ANDREW GOLD, 59, a pop singer/songwriter enlisted by Linda Ronstadt to play in her band when he had barely finished high school, died last Friday (6/3) at his home in Encino, CA, from an apparent heart attack, though he was also battling cancer. Gold went on to have a successful recording career of his own with hits like “Lonely Boy” and “Thank You for Being a Friend.” His instrumental and arranging work helped make Ronstadt’s 1974 album, Heart Like a Wheel, into a breakout hit. Gold was a much sought after musician whose guitar and piano work helped define the seamless texture of recordings by artists like James Taylor, Carly Simon, Maria Muldaur, Jackson Browne and Loudon Wainwright III. His parents were film composer Ernest Gold, who died in 1999, and wrote the Oscar-winning score for the movie Exodus and singer Marni Nixon, best known for dubbing the movie singing voices of Natalie Wood in West Side Story and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady. (6/7p)