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
The Great Songs from "My Fair Lady" and Other Broadway Hits go into national release. This is further buttressed with a half dozen top tunes from other Broadway shows." Songs from "My Fair Lady": "Begin the Beguine" had its most successful chart performance as an instrumental recording by Artie Shaw & His Orchestra that spent six weeks at number one in 1938, sold one million copies, and returned to the charts in 1942, peaking at number 20. "Where or When" had two separate trips to the top five: Hal Kemp & His Orchestra spent a week with the song at number one that same year with Bob Allen on vocal, and