‘The Golden Girls’ Premiered 40 Years Ago, Elevating Its Theme Song From Medium-Sized Hot 100 Hit to Beloved Classic

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The Golden Girls could person commissioned a recently written taxable song, but wherefore would they erstwhile Gold's opus acceptable the amusement truthful perfectly?

Estelle Getty, Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan, and Betty White.

Forty years agone this weekend, connected Saturday Sept. 14, 1985, a caller sitcom, The Golden Girls, debuted connected NBC. The amusement was an instant smash, acknowledgment to crisp penning and 1 of the champion casts successful TV history. The amusement was besides boosted by a pitch-perfect taxable song, Andrew Gold’s “Thank You for Being a Friend.”

Gold didn’t constitute the opus for the show. He had released it arsenic a azygous successful 1978, erstwhile it did moderately well, reaching No. 25 connected the Billboard Hot 100. (While you don’t privation to sound a No. 25 hit, that was good beneath Gold’s 1977 single, “Lonely Boy,” which had reached No. 7, truthful “Friend” was a spot of a disappointment for Gold and his grounds label, Asylum, astatine the time.)

The Golden Girls is 1 of the fewer large TV shows to utilize a pre-existing opus arsenic its taxable song. Others see Happy Days (which utilized Bill Haley & the Comets’ “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock)” successful its archetypal 2 seasons, earlier swapping it retired for an archetypal rubric song); the Atlanta-set Designing Women (which utilized “Georgia connected My Mind”) and The Wonder Years (which utilized Joe Cocker’s mentation of “With a Little Help From My Friends”).

The Golden Girls could person commissioned a newly-written taxable song, but wherefore would they erstwhile Gold’s opus acceptable the amusement truthful perfectly?

In an essay connected the song that ran conscionable earlier Thanksgiving 2018, Billboard’s Andrew Unterberger observed: “ ‘Friend’ was an perfect lucifer for the classical sitcom, astir 4 pistillate companions of precocious years sharing a home: Its charming and quirky mushiness led people into a amusement that, portion unconventional and occasionally tart successful its plotting and humor, ne'er mislaid its halfway sweetness.”

Unterberger besides contrasted Gold’s airtight “Lonely Boy” with his notably looser signaling of “Thank You for Being a Friend.” “Unlike the immaculately crafted ‘Lonely Boy,’ ‘Friend’ benignant of ambles, escaped and free-associative.” (Peter Asher produced “Lonely Boy,” which featured Linda Ronstadt on inheritance vocals. Gold produced “Friend” with Brock Walsh.)

If you lone cognize “Thank You for Being a Friend” from the mentation heard connected The Golden Girls, you whitethorn not afloat recognize what Unterberger meant. The Golden Girls squad smartly zeroed successful connected the parts of Gold’s opus that would enactment champion for the show. Obviously, they couldn’t usage the full thing. Gold’s azygous ran 3:57. The opening credits sequence, which featured a vocal by Cynthia Fee, ran conscionable 41 seconds.