American Top 40 PastBlast Redux, 3/18/78: Andrew Gold, “Thank You for Being a Friend”

Before I started this blog, I posted about songs from old AT40s on Facebook, January-July 2017. I’ll be moving them here over time. This entry has been edited a bit from the original.

In some ways it’s a little difficult to believe “Thank You for Being a Friend” reached only #25 (it’s on its way up, at #34 in this countdown).  It was certainly hard to avoid hearing starting in Fall 85, when (a different version) was used as the theme for the TV series The Golden Girls.  Long-time AT40 listeners also know that for many years it was the most played/requested Long Distance Dedication.  I’m a sucker for sentiments like those expressed here; the line that tends to get me most is, “Have no fear, even though it’s hard to hear, I will stand real close and say…”

Andrew Gold got his first break singing backup for Linda Ronstadt, after she started working with Peter Asher in the mid-70s.  Later on he released a few solo disks but had Casey play only two of his songs (while I really liked the top 10 hit “Lonely Boy” back in 77, I now find its storyline of angst brought on by the birth of a younger sibling, well, let’s call it immature).  In the 80s he formed the duo Wax with Graham Gouldman of 10cc.  They had a few hits in the UK but only reached #41 with one song on this side of the Atlantic.  He died in 2011, age 59, of a heart attack.