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
Honor to Us All Matchmaker". Schwartz was eventually replaced by composer Matthew Wilder and lyricist David Zippel, who wrote "Honor to Us All" to replace "China Doll". Disney cast American singer and actress Marni Nixon, one of Hollywood's best known ghost singers, as the singing voice of Grandmother Fa, Mulan's paternal grandmother. Nixon received the sheet music for "Honor to Us All" to review prior to auditioning for the role. The filmmakers then showed Nixon a drawing of the character, by whose comedic appearance the singer was immediately "enchanted", telling herself "you've just got to give her a voice ... or, in this case,