Andrew Gold mother was singer Marni Nixon, who provided the singing voice for numerous actresses, notably Natalie Wood in "West Side Story", Deborah Kerr in "The King and I", and Audrey Hepburn in "My Fair Lady"; his father was Ernest Gold, an Austrian-born composer who won an Academy Award for his score for the movie "Exodus". He had two younger sisters. Gold began writing songs at the age of 13. Abroad in England for school, the 16-year-old Gold scored his first recording contract on the strength of a selection of demos he submitted to Polydor Records' London office. That contract resulted in
West Side Story (soundtrack) contains "beefier orchestration". In her autobiography, "I Could Have Sung All Night", Marni Nixon spoke of singing the role of Maria and of her observations of some of the other singers whose voices were dubbed into the film. According to Nixon, very little of the singing on the soundtrack was contributed by the on-screen top-billing stars of the film; while George Chakiris provided vocals for the character of Bernardo, Nixon claims, even Russ Tamblyn's voice was dubbed over by Tucker Smith because Tamblyn had contractual obligations with MGM Records. (While the film was released by United Artists, the soundtrack album