KANSAS CITY, Mo. — “The Golden Girls” is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a new special debuting on Hulu Wednesday, November 12. A Raytown grad is part of that special, because she’s the woman who sang the show’s theme song.
Cindy Fee has been on recordings and sung backup with the likes of Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton and Whitney Houston. But she is probably best known for a simple six-word phrase, “Thank You for Being a Friend” (originally recorded by Andrew Gold).
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Fee just released her own version of the song for the first time this month with instrumentals by another former Kansas Citian Mark Leggett. Fee got her start to her musical career in Kansas City beginning performing at the age of 16.
“I was in a band called Hotfoot that kind of rose to the top of the Kansas City scene for quite a while and while I was there in Kansas City I sang at the first year of Worlds of Fun, shows how old I am,” Fee said.
She moved to L.A. and began singing demos for Diane Warren and jingles for several long running national commercials when she got a fairly common request to record a theme song for a pilot in 1985.
“I didn’t know the people I was working with and I came in and they told me it was a show called “The Golden Girls.” They really didn’t tell me too much else about it,” Fee said.
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She’s been told that quick recording of “Thank You for Being a Friend” has been heard 8 billion times. Now on her social media accounts she “thanks you for being a fan,” and is connecting listeners to the new version with the familiar lyrics and the second verse you’ve likely never heard.
Fee said Betty White’s 2021 death and increased streaming during the pandemic led to people discovering and rediscovering the show. She’s since received a lot more requests to sing the song she’d left off her set lists for decades.
“The conventions were amazing they literally were thousands of people,” she said of recent invites to Golden-Con where she’s met new pals and confidants.
She traveled down a road and back again to Raytown, where in 2022, they threw a party and invited everyone they knew for her induction in to the school’s Alumni Hall of Game. If you see her around town or at a convention she says she loves when people sing to her, but doesn’t mind a request.
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“I’m happy to sing the song for people because it’s such a positive message,” Fee said.
The new version of “Thank You for Being a Friend” is the first single off her new album appropriately titled “Golden.” According to Fee it is available for streaming and download on all platforms.
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