An Iconic Voice | The Last Golden Girl Cindy Fee on the Art of TV Themes - 80s TV Ladies

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Eighties D Day and So Pretty Eighties to the City.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Dunning Manny, Welcome to Eighties TV Ladies, and thank you
for being a listener. You're your hosts, Sharon Johnson and
Susan Lambert HadAM.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Hello, I'm Sharon and I'm Susan. Today I'm so thankful.
I'm thankful for music and friends and singing, and especially
for our guests today, a woman who knows all about
music and friends.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
I am thankful too, because Cindy fe is a recording
artist and singer who has been performing professionally since she
was sixteen years old. She has sung with Kenny Rogers,
Garth Brooks, Dolly Parton, Whitney Houston, and Lionel Ritchie, among others.

Speaker 3 (00:59):
She's a prolific studio performer, jingle and commercial singer, and
she is most known for singing the incredible television theme
song for The Golden Girls, thank You for Being a Friend.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
That may be one of the most, if not the
most recognizable theme songs of all time. We're so thrilled
to have Cindy Fee on the show to tell us
about her career and her incredible journey.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
Welcome to Eighties TV Ladies. Miss Cindy Fie.

Speaker 4 (01:30):
My pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
We are really thrilled to talk with you today. Starting off,
are you still singing and performing these days and doing
your cabaret show by any chance?

Speaker 4 (01:42):
Yes, yes i am. I started at last spring in Chicago,
and we're getting We're booking dates throughout the Midwest and
on both coasts.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Oh my goodness, that's fantastic. We will come see you.

Speaker 4 (01:55):
Ah awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah all right, but let's take ourselves back in time
a little bit. You started performing very young professionally.

Speaker 4 (02:06):
Yeah, I was actually making money performing by the time
I was about fourteen. But I was one of those
one of those little kids that you know, I sang
before I talked. I was singing for my family and
parents' friends by the time I was about three, you know,
very very age appropriate tunes like you know, hey, good

(02:26):
look in you know stuff that it was, of course
that your parents listened to, you know. But I did
have a wonderful musical upbringing of all kinds of music,
so it kind of shows in my voice I sing.
My voice is a mix of all these different styles,
and I think that's partially due to that that my
parents listened to everything under the planet.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
And are they musically inclined to or they are they musicians?

Speaker 4 (02:47):
My mother had a wonderful voice. Both of my parents
had deceased, but my mother had a wonderful voice. My
father had a great tone, but he was toned. But
he couldn't hold a pitch for anything. And so and
yet after he was told to just mouth the words,
you know, he just sang louder. So yeah, yes, good
for him, is right, because singing's a pretty wonderful experience.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
So what like, how did that look like? Did you
just do you just kept going and suddenly you were
being paid to sing? Or did you make a choice?

Speaker 4 (03:18):
I think the well it was I had been singing
all along, you know, and various little things, even as
a five year old and a Beatles band, you know
where they kicked me out because I didn't want a
lip sync, you know, I was a young kid in
the Beatles band. But I that was when I lived
in Detroit, But I moved to Kansas City probably about
fifth grade, and by seventh grade, I sang in the

(03:42):
talent show. I sang with a group of other singers,
other kids in school, and then I sang out and
did a solo. I sang sitting on the dock of
the bay, which is I'm all things, sol is kind
of where my wheelhouse is. And I from then on
I was just known as sort of the voice, you know,
the voice of my school. And I started making money

(04:04):
singing in a trio, a guitar trio in a restaurant
the summer after my after eighth grade. So and then
never really never looked back.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
And so in your bio it says you packed up
and moved to la at twenty.

Speaker 4 (04:19):
I did.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
And so what was that like? And what year are
we talking about?

Speaker 4 (04:24):
Not those you know, we're talking about seventy round seventy eight,
And uh, well, I just remember driving across the desert
in my beat up old car that didn't have air conditioning.
So I drove at night with my cat and my
record collection and hauling it all and in the daytime,
the one time night I spent the night so my
records didn't melt. I knew a couple of people that

(04:47):
had moved there from the Kansas City music scene. I
had started playing, I'd done a number of things. I'd
been in a band that was one of the top
bands in the area. By the time I was eighteen,
too young to go into the clubs we played at
I one year. I sang jazz with a jazz trio
for a year, and the man that was in the

(05:08):
band that I was in, Hotfoot, he had moved to
Los Angeles ahead of me, and so he was the
one person I knew. And so, you know, you get
to a certain point and you go, do I want
to be back then? Of course, today it's a different
story because today you have the Internet, so you can
kind of, you know, you can kind of make music
wherever you are. But back then you went to one
of the three major centers. If you were really serious.
You go as far as you can in your small pond,

(05:32):
so to speak, and then you move to the big city.
And I was pretty lucky. I probably had the only
job I've ever had in my life that wasn't singing
for about five months, and then I won the Best
vocal Performance on the American Songwriting Festival for a song
that my friend had written, and that just led to

(05:53):
all kinds of things, just down the road things, you know,
because that's the way it works. You know, one thing
leads to another, and then you just kind of keep going.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
So work begets work, yeah, kind of.

Speaker 4 (06:03):
You know. The first thing I did was start singing
songs for a songwriter that you might have heard of,
Diane Warren. Oh yeah, very young Diane Warren. She was
probably just about the same age as me, very prolific,
and you know, I sang a ton of songs for her,
you know, song demos for her at that age. So
that was what got me going.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
That is amazing. And did you guys just sort of
click and she's like, oh, I like you you can
you have the right voice to demo my songs or
did you confronts?

Speaker 4 (06:36):
No, I'd never met her before that I must know
I must have had the right voice because I basically
did six or seven demos a week for her. Because man,
she was really prolific in the I mean, I'm sure
now she still cranks them out at at an amazing rate.
She's a very prolific writer. But yeah, she was great.
She was wonderful to work with. She had someone that
believed in her, and so you know, we did these

(06:58):
song demos at Western STU Studio, you know, every week, Oh.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
My gosh, and then and then when the when the
song comes out, of you're like, yeah, I did that demo.

Speaker 4 (07:07):
Well, early on, there weren't that many, you know, because
like I said, she you know, she was just writing
so many. By the time she actually started having hits,
I had moved on to other stuff. I wasn't really
doing song demos anymore.

Speaker 3 (07:21):
So what is what is that world like in terms
of getting to do demos for a songwriter? Honestly, I
don't know much of anything about that world.

Speaker 4 (07:33):
So well, what that world is and you see it
in particular a lot in Nashville because there's so many
songwriters in Nashville, is that there's a lot of writers
that although they're wonderful, prolific writers, they're not great singers,
and so they hire someone to come in that is
a good singer that can sing the song, to make
the song sound as good as it can be, and
then the songs, through their publishers, get shopped to artists

(07:57):
or in the case of Diane Warren, at this stage
of the game, she probably doesn't have anybody doing it.
She's just playing the song for whoever wants a song
for her. But it's it's a good way for a
lot of young singers to get started. You know, because
your voice is getting out there. You get things to
put on a jingle, you know, on a reel so
that other people can hear you, you know, because you know,

(08:19):
left to your own devices, it's pretty expensive, especially back then,
nobody had home equipment to go into a studio to record.

Speaker 3 (08:26):
And is the writer pretty much are they still sometimes
working on the song in terms of trying to figure
out what not necessarily what genre, but to to figure
out what the song is going to be, you know,
how much the tempo.

Speaker 4 (08:42):
Well, usually usually the songs are done okay, you know.
Usually they have an idea because they're going to hire
a voice that gives them someone like say, like say
early on, a writer wants to send a song to
you know, to Celine Dion for example. They're not going
to hire someone that sounds country. They're going to hire
someone that sounds somewhat in that genre. Not They don't

(09:05):
want the very best vocal performance because they want it
to be they want the artists to be able to
think about what they can add themselves. But they want
someone that's a good singer that you know, that shows
the melody, shows you know, the direction that they see.
Now many times people will take a song a different
direction for sure, but they're you know, it's it's mostly done,

(09:25):
like I said, by young songwriters that are trying to
break in. You know, they don't they can't just call up,
you know, an artist and have them pick up the phone.
You know, it's just not going to work that way.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
And now, did you do any writing yourself?

Speaker 4 (09:41):
I learned to write after I had had a deal
with RCA in Nashville. When I went to Nashville, because
Nashville is kind of one of those places where everyone writes.
It's going to kind of like you just sort of
plug in and you know, and there's a million songwriters,
just like there's a million players in Nashville. So yeah,
I right, I write quite a bit.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
Actually, it's such an amazing artistry. And but singing is
a mystery to me, like as someone who is who
loves saying. Sharon's a singer and I love singers and
I work with singers, but just the ability to make
your voice do amazing things is so I love it.

(10:19):
It's like it's like acting to me. I work with
actors all the time, and yet I still think it's
kind of magical what they do well.

Speaker 4 (10:27):
Everyone's got their own process, and Sharon, I'm sure you
agree with me, you know everyone, but those of us
that are singers, you know, it's just for me anyhow,
Singing is even more natural than talking. You know, I've
always sung, and I sing whether I'm working or not.
You know, some singers don't, but I do. I just
kind of sing, you know, I just go. In fact,
there was one point when my kids were like, quit saying, Mom,

(10:49):
you sing too much. You know, stop you think life
is a musical. And I said, well to me, it
is really I love that.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
And do you were your kids to wear of what
you're doing? Are they impressed by it? Did they? Did
they go into it? Yes?

Speaker 4 (11:07):
Yes, No, No, my kids were aware because I you know,
I would fly off to work or i would work
in town, and I've always done live performing at various
times throughout the pace, so they they weren't particularly impressed
by it when I was young, you know, when they
were young, you know, because I was mom to them,
you know, that was it was just it was different,

(11:28):
you know, and they and then they got used to it,
and then they were like, you know, i'd go you
want to go hear Sheryl crow sing and they'd go
because you know, because the people I know, and they'd go, well,
what kind of food are they having backstage? You know,
like weird things, and you'd go, Okay, now they're now
that they're you know, they're like early thirties. They're both
very impressed by it. You know, they came to one

(11:50):
of my shows last uh spring and they were basically like,
we didn't know you were funny. We didn't know you
could handle an audience like that. It's like, well, maybe
if you'd come to some of my shows for the
last ten years, you would have. But you know, but
you know that you're just mom. It's different.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
It's very different. It's it's really neat though, to be
able as your kid's age for them to then see you.
You start to see them as like people separate and
apart from being your child, and then they start to
see you a little bit separate and apart from being
parent exactly exactly.

Speaker 4 (12:21):
It becomes you know, you're always going to be their
parent and they're always going to be your kid, but
they see you in a different way. And for me
it's nice because I'm very close My husband and I
are both very close with both of our kids. And
you know, and they call me a lot more than
I call them. Actually I'm not the mother that's always
calling them. They call me a lot. They check in
a lot.

Speaker 1 (12:40):
So and do they live close by or are they far?

Speaker 4 (12:43):
They both live in Chicago, so they're about four hours away,
you know, they live there. But I see them because
I go to Chicago fairly frequently for things, so I
see them when I'm in town.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
And so, you what got you doing the studio work? Right?
It seems like that's where you sort of landed.

Speaker 4 (13:00):
Well, right after I moved to Los Angeles. First of all,
I started doing those demos for Diane Warren and that
led me to one day I was in a studio
with her and she said, have you ever done jingles?
And I said, well, I would like to, but nobody's
paying any attention to my jingle reel I'd send it out.
And she said, well, there's a jingle writer in the

(13:20):
next studio, John Totali, And she said, why don't you
give him a tape? So I had a reel with me,
because as a singer, you always have a reel just
in case. And I ran in the studio and said, hi,
I'm Cindy Fiama singer. Please listen to my reel and
then ran back out, you know. So it was like
like a hit and run or something like that. And
he called me a few days later and had hired

(13:42):
me for a spot that we flew to New York
to do. My first time in New York. It was
pretty exciting for this pretty young kid, and I didn't
he did not get the spot. The spot we sang,
I think it was for a Claire commercial, but while
I was there, the producers liked my voice and flew
me back the next week to sing a demo. They

(14:02):
call them demos until they decide that's what they're going
to do for the new Avon campaign. So I got
that and so then started flying back and forth between
New York and LA every other week to do Avon
And that led to the LA jingle writers, who, you know,
the business, everybody wants somebody that they think other people

(14:24):
are using. They were like, okay, now why are we
not using Cindy Fee if New York is using her?
So I started working there and also at Mike Posts,
the man that had you know that's written a million
TV themes and Mike Yes, and Mike recorded some sides
on me to try to get me a record deal,
which he did not get a record deal, but he

(14:45):
introduced me to all of the guys from First Edition,
which is how I ended up meeting Kenny Rogers and
singing with them for quite a while. So I had
these two kind of things going simultaneously. I was starting
to do jingles and then starting to do recording projects
as well with them. So it kind of which is

(15:06):
how it works, you take off on two different fronts sometimes, and.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
So late seventies, early eighties, this is happening.

Speaker 4 (15:13):
Yes, by maybe eighty one, eighty two. You know, I
was really doing a lot of stuff by then, because
it's a whole particularly back then when everything you know,
there wasn't a million studios with nobody had their home studios.
So jingles were all being done by five or six
jingle houses. Same things for film or for TV shows,

(15:34):
you know, they were all being done by you know,
there maybe four or five six writers in the area,
and one person would hear you, then you'd work for
someone else. So it just became a you know, it
was very lucrative because it was all network back then.
You know, no one we didn't even have cables, so
it was all network spots, and so the people that

(15:57):
you were working with really were the best of the best,
people that were incredibly fast, incredibly good at the craft
because you'd have to come in and sing something, and
you know, sing a lead in a half hour, an hour,
sing backgrounds in an hour, and everything would be done
in one day, not like record dates where it can
take weeks to get the right vocals to get the

(16:18):
right things. So it's a very so it really attracted
the best of the best people and that and the money.

Speaker 3 (16:24):
Of course, your parents must have been really happy that
things started going so well for you relatively quickly. I
would imagine that they might have been a little trepidacious
about you moving to Los Angeles initially, you.

Speaker 4 (16:37):
Know, yes and no, yes, because it took me a
while to finally decided and when I first got there
that I needed to go get a job, there were
a number of can I have a couple hundred dollars
dead phone calls home? But my parents were always always,
they just believed in me so totally. They were always
in my corner and they and they just knew because

(16:58):
I never went through this phase of what am I
going to do when I grow up? I always knew
what I was going to do. It was just who
I was, and they were my biggest fans. I was
lucky because you know, my husband, I believe his mother.
He also moved to Los Angeles as a guitar player
writer as part of a band that I had to
deal with capital, and his mother had told him, you know,

(17:19):
if you're going to be a musician, you're going to
be a second class citizen, you know, which was what
a lot of people in that time, you know, period thought.
And so I was lucky to have people that believed
in me so totally.

Speaker 3 (17:31):
Oh that's fantastic.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
Now, did you guys meet in la as a music thing?

Speaker 4 (17:37):
We did, although he was by this time doing appraisally
as a very successful appraisal review company. Because he got
to a certain point. I think the biggest thing he
ever did was he was Bet Midler's arranger for a while,
but he kind of went, you know, there's a million
there's a million arrangers here in Hollywood. Am I Am
I that amazing that I'm going to have this amazing career.

(17:58):
Maybe not, so I better find another thing. So I
became an appraiser, and appraisal is good for musicians because
it's numbers, you know, just like music. Music is numbers.

Speaker 1 (18:08):
So that's amazing.

Speaker 3 (18:10):
All right.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
So you're working with Mike Post any Mike post Stories
because I'm a huge Channel Mic Post fan.

Speaker 4 (18:17):
Well, he brought me in to see He brought me
into one of Dolly's recordings and I got to meet
Dolly Parton. Here I am this twenty one year old kid,
and I meet Dolly Parton and heard her sing in
the studio and she he did a record with her
during that time period, and she recorded the song the
Woody Guthrie toon Deportie, and it stuck with me so

(18:39):
amazingly that I've sung it as an encore for years
and years. But what I loved about Dolly was in
the studio she wasn't all made up, and she didn't
have her wigs on. She just looked pretty normal except
for obviously how she's built, you know. But I mean
she said, yeah, this is how I look in ordinary life,
so I can go about order in their life, you know.

(19:01):
Back then. The other thing that was pretty great is
he hired me to sing on a or he was
producing a record for an artist out of Memphis, and
he hired me to sing in a big, giant background group,
and so that was where I met Ken Vassi, who
led me to the first edition. But I'm singing in
this group of about twenty singers, you know, I'm pretty excited.

(19:22):
It's one of my first LA sessions out there. And
I hear this amazing voice and I look over and
there's Linda Ronstead two singers over from me, and I'm
just like, Holy, Holy Jesus, I can't even believe it.
You know, It's like you're just going this is you know,
being thrown into the I mean it was fine for me.
I was okay with it, but it was so exciting

(19:43):
and so amazing, you know, to hear these voices.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
I mean, how what an exciting time to be in music.
I guess music is always exciting, but that was a
really neat time to be breaking into music, and.

Speaker 4 (19:57):
Because you you didn't have like everybody does stuff in
they're at home now or in their producer's studio, you know.
Back then, you know, like Mike also produced Bruce Hornsby
and now he didn't get a deal on Bruce. But
but Bruce went and did his own record a couple
of years later and brought it into the studio at
a Lion's Share at Kenny Rodgers' studio and played it

(20:19):
for us before it was ever released, because I was
there doing some work and so it was exciting because
you had it was just different, you know, people had
to get together. They had to get together. It wasn't
done so separately as things are now. The other side
of the coin in today's world is that an artist
can be an artist without without ever leaving their home,
you know, like Billie Eilish who you know, broke out

(20:40):
with her and her brother doing their stuff at home,
you know, And that's that's a wonderful thing too. You
can find you you can find your own audience in
today's world, you know, but you don't have the you know,
without without having to get through the gatekeepers of the
major labels, which is what you had to do back then.

Speaker 3 (20:58):
How old were you when you did. I went into
a studio for the first time to record.

Speaker 4 (21:04):
The first time I ever sang. I was about eighteen.
It was in a studio in Kansas City, and it
was it was a studio that had been built in
this big cave. It was called Caverns Studio, and I
went in with a friend of mine who to this
day still makes music, Gary Apple, and he had me sing.

(21:24):
What did I sing? I sang a female version of
Tom Petty's American Girl. She was an American Girl, you know.
So that was pretty exciting, you know. But I did
so much recording by the time I got to LA
that it just became secondhand. Because it was like during
the jingle height of the jingles and session work in
Los Angeles, you were working three four sessions a day.

Speaker 1 (21:48):
I was going to ask you, like, so is what
was a session day like for you? How many?

Speaker 4 (21:55):
Usually I would have a couple of jingle sessions, you know.
And then because I was singing both lead and background,
I got very successful doing lead. I was probably the
top female call in town for quite a while. That
means the top female solo voice. And it sort of
depended who you worked for. But there was a lot

(22:17):
of wine back in those days. I mean it was
literally like Madmen, only you know, all the top jingle
producers writers would have their wine stash and all the
clients would come in and they'd start drinking wine. The
beginning of the day, these amazing bottles of wine. So
as a young singer, I learned then when you were
done with your session, if it was the end of

(22:37):
the day, you'd have a couple glasses of wine. So
I'm learning to drink this amazing wine when I'm twenty
one and twenty two. But I would usually do a
couple jingle sessions and then maybe go maybe a record
date at the end of the singing background for different people.
So it was just going from one studio to the next.
I mean, you had to keep your time fame. You
were booked from like ten to twelve, thirty one to three,

(23:00):
you know, and then three point thirty two whenever. Yeah,
so they would work around your schedule if they particularly
wanted you for something.

Speaker 1 (23:07):
But yeah, so you have to walk in there and
pick thinks. You have to immediately be able to pick
up anything and sing anything anyway.

Speaker 4 (23:15):
Yes, and in jingles it back then, in particular, it
was all charts. They put charts in front of you.
I mean they would sometimes if you were singing leads
sing the song for you, but it was mostly charts. Luckily,
I read music, which is a good thing because I
mean the rest of those singers I was working with.
Those people could read anything, and they still can, a
number of them, Edie Layman. They still work a lot today.

(23:37):
You know, there's a lot of people that are still
still around doing what they do.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
You know.

Speaker 3 (23:41):
So at a lot of times would you walk into
the session without having the opportunity to hear or see
the music ahead of time to prepare or.

Speaker 4 (23:50):
Always always you never saw it. You know, you walk
in there and you'd read through it. They'd play the track,
you'd read through it if it was you know, if
it was a particular it was a song, you know,
like in the case of which we'll get to later.
I'm sure the Golden Girls they played me Andrew Gold's
version of the track, you know, a couple of times.

(24:12):
But yeah, it was all you never got anything ahead
of time, it was, which is why I said the
people were the best of the best, because they had
to be willing to do that, you know. You I
still recalled years later doing a session for a producer
in Nashville and he said, I walked It was a
recording session that he was produced some sides on me,
and he goes, you walked in. You just set your

(24:32):
coat down, You went up to the mic, you put
the headphones on, you put your water bottle, and you said, okay,
I'm ready, and he goes. And that's just not what
happens in records generally speaking. But I was so used
to that from jingles, you know, that was what I did.

Speaker 1 (24:47):
So what was LA like in the early eighties, Well, LA.

Speaker 4 (24:52):
Was really exciting in the eighties. You know, there was
a lot of you know, there was a lot of
money going around, there was there was a lot lot
of work. There was a lot of incredible talent, you know,
I mean from you know, from everyone from like I said,
you know, the young people that were coming there, like
Bruce Hornsby and people like that. That there were people
that became gigantic stars that tried to break into jingles

(25:17):
and weren't successful, like Sheryl Crowe, you know, which is
where I first met her, you know, on a jingle date.
But it was just a very creative time and a
lot of work, you know, it was it was It
was really fun, a lot of work, and it was
a good time for singers because we had contracts in place.
Union contracts were in place. I met this guy that

(25:38):
had sung the theme to Gilligan's Island. But he but
they didn't have TV contracts in place back then, so
he really only made his daily players rate and that
was it.

Speaker 5 (25:49):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (25:50):
Wow, Yeah, So I'm glad you had contracts.

Speaker 4 (25:53):
Yes, me as well.

Speaker 1 (25:55):
All right, So jingles? And when did you start doing
theme songs? Was that just mixed in? How did that?

Speaker 3 (26:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (26:01):
That was mixed in? I had sung a number of them,
but the Golden Girls was the one that was the
that really went. And you would do back then Network
TV all of their false shows, they would all be
like the second week of September. They would debut all
the shows, so everything would be done in the summer,
you know, you would. I think I got the Golden

(26:23):
Girls call probably June, June or July right in there,
and I went in and sang it. And I didn't
really know much about the show other than I was,
you know, I just was singing this song. I didn't
find out much later. And what they would do is
they would the networks would do a pilot in, put
music to it, hire everyone for pilot, and then they

(26:43):
would do it for an audience, and if the audience
liked it, you know, a test audience, then they would
order episodes for the season, and so I must have
I mean they I must have done it early, probably June.
It probably was June because they would have then worked
dull summer getting the episodes ready to start, although they
kept filming week after week. So it was an interesting process.

(27:08):
It's very different from what they do today.

Speaker 1 (27:10):
Well, and so you didn't know, you were just you
just went in. It was one of the jobs. At
what point did you know?

Speaker 4 (27:18):
Well after the probably midway through the first season, because
it was getting so much press. And it's wonderful that
it was, because I mean, in today's world, would they
do a show about three older women and their mother.
You know, No, no, it would never happen, you know.

(27:39):
And so and yet I think that one of the
things that made me fairly early on realized that it
might be a show that had some staying power was
the fact that almost every episode they did, they did
things that happened to women. You know, Like one episode,

(27:59):
b Arthur finds out the man she's dating is uh
is married, right, and then the Roue McClanahan is saying, oh,
go for you, you deserve to have love, and Betty
White's going no, it's wrong, and I thought, this is
why this show is so popular, because there is no
woman on the planet, you know, that has not found

(28:19):
out that the person that she's dating is either engaged
or involved or married. You know that is now. I'm
sure it happens to men as well, probably not as much,
you know, particularly back then, but I mean, you know,
what they did was come up with things that are
uniquely women's issues, and that was pretty brilliant. You know,

(28:40):
I know you had you had stand on here a
while back.

Speaker 3 (28:42):
Yes we did.

Speaker 4 (28:43):
Yes, he's a pretty charming guy and so funny and
so interesting.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
Yes he is. We had a blast and and it
sort of led I don't know if that's how Zach
heard of us, but we're delighted to be in touch
with you, and we you know, it led us to
moving Golden Girls up. I've been a little intimidated by
Golden Girls. It's the it's the ultimate eighties TV ladies.

(29:09):
So I was like, well, we can't cover it near
the top of our show. But then I was like, all.

Speaker 4 (29:14):
Right, well, yeah, well, and of course the fact is
is that there aren't anymore. I mean, I guess in
some ways I'm the last Golden girl. I know, and
I am now the age a little bit past the
age that they were when they first started doing it.

Speaker 1 (29:28):
It is so amazing, because disconcerting with very disconcerting.

Speaker 4 (29:33):
Yeah, they weren't that old.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
They don't seem that old. The older we get doubt.

Speaker 3 (29:41):
Well, we have to take a break, but we'll be
right back to talk more with Cindy and play the
commercial jingle game. Welcome back for more eighties TV ladies.
I miss TV theme songs. I really do. I you know,
there are so many over the years that I've loved,

(30:03):
whether you know, some instrumental, but certainly the ones you
sing along to, they are so ingrained in you when
it comes to your thoughts and your feelings about the show.
You hear the music and you're right there. You're in
the living room with with with Blanche and Dorothy and Sophia,
you know, or sitting in the kitchen with them having

(30:25):
cheesecake or whatever when you hear that music. And that's
true with so many shows, and I miss it. I
understand the reasons why I don't like the reasons why
they don't do that anymore, but as much anymore, but
I really really miss it.

Speaker 4 (30:41):
Well, they are trying and some shows are trying to
bring it back. The show outlander Us is the same
song to open every of one of its episodes. Now
it does change the singer. I think every season. I
was told, but you know, I think that. Yeah. I
think it's interesting because when I first started doing jingles

(31:03):
and all this kind of stuff, writers tended to look
at things like, you know, like a like a song
for a TV show, A song for a jingle is
almost like you're selling out until they started realizing how
much money was being made.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
You are, and how how profitable it was to.

Speaker 4 (31:20):
Sell out exactly. I mean, it got crazy. I got
a call once to sing I think it was for
a Good Year commercial. It was to sing respect, that
Aretha Franklin song Respect, And they hired me because they
wanted someone soulful, but not someone that would sound that
would sound black, right. They wanted to make sure because
they didn't want to get sued you know, by the

(31:42):
Franklin you know corporation because everything's in corporation now. But
it was it was pretty wild because you know, I'm
singing at it, I'm trying to take I mean, and
I do normally, I'm you know, I'm a soulful singer.
I can sing with a lot of licks and a
lot of stuff. But I just kept scaling it back
and scale. They kept going, no, it's still too soulful.
And I wasn't doing any licks by then. You know,

(32:02):
I go, well, what what is too What is too
soulful for you? And they go, what what you want? Baby?

Speaker 1 (32:08):
I got it?

Speaker 4 (32:09):
I go, well, what am I supposed to sing? What
do you want?

Speaker 1 (32:12):
Baby?

Speaker 4 (32:13):
I have got it? You know, it's like you're just going,
did you even think about this before you pick this song?

Speaker 2 (32:19):
You know?

Speaker 4 (32:20):
I think probably it was Northern Exposure that was the
first TV show to start playing a song at the end.

Speaker 3 (32:27):
I'd forgotten that they did that, and I watched that show.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
Yeah, oh my.

Speaker 4 (32:31):
Gosh, remember you just that was the first time I
ever saw that, and it was and now everybody does
that on TV shows. They you know, they come up
with a song, and everybody wants their songs on TV
shows now or film everyone wants it because once again,
when they realized the prophets involved in it, you know,
that changed it. But yeah, I mean, the the industry

(32:52):
has changed so many ways, you know.

Speaker 1 (32:55):
Yeah, and is it? Is it for the better or worse.

Speaker 4 (33:02):
I think some of it is for the better because
I mean it's not necessarily the recording industry. Songs not
so much for the artist because unless you're someone like
a Taylor Swift, you know, or you just sell directly
through your own website, you make no money. I mean literally,
I have three two, two or three records on all

(33:23):
the streaming services and on Apple you can buy it,
and you know, and I sell quite a sell a
lot of them every year, and I probably make maybe
at the most fifteen dollars.

Speaker 3 (33:36):
Oh wow.

Speaker 4 (33:36):
I mean it's like you get nothing basically. So that's
why so many younger, so many artists they have to tour,
you know, they just go on they go on tours
because they don't have an option of making money.

Speaker 3 (33:47):
You know.

Speaker 4 (33:48):
It's not the way it used to be. I mean,
even back then record labels, even back then, your first
your first deal, what was my first deal? It was
I got five cents out of every record soul. So
unless you had a hit, you know, you're not making anything,
you know. So so it's just different. So in the

(34:09):
recording industry, I would say, yes, it's not. It's not
nearly as good as it used to be. Also because
so much of it is done by by AI. You know,
they're they're they're basically deciding. You know, if you look
at an artist and you go to you know, one
of the streaming services, uh, they'll put the songs that
you say, okay, I want to hear a Cindy Fee playlist.

(34:30):
The songs they put on there are ridiculous. A lot
of them are like, why, what the heck does that
have to do with anything I've written or anything I've done? Nothing,
But it's what some computer generated program thought. So for music,
not so much for film and TV, I would say
it's it's been a good thing. I mean, look at
the quality. Back in the day, no movie star would

(34:53):
ever do a TV show. Yeah, generally speaking, unless they'd
gotten old, you know, I mean you you did one
or you did the other. You know, you were very
lucky if you could cross and once you crossed over
from TV to film, you usually didn't go back. But
in today's world it's different, you know everybody And.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
Was that true in in for singers, Like if you're
doing commercials and television, would you get called for a
film or for.

Speaker 4 (35:19):
Oh yeah, it's the same singers. It's the same singers
that do unless they're hiring, unless they're hiring a celebrity,
you know, and then the celebrity is getting you know,
there's I mean, they're not doing a SAG daily players
rate contract. You know, they're getting there, you know there.
And even in jingles. I mean, I was very lucky
because a couple of jingle campaigns that I did, I

(35:41):
did for long periods of time. I sang, Hoover, nobody does.

Speaker 5 (35:46):
It like you, Hoover Nobody.

Speaker 4 (35:51):
I sang that for seven years, and I was under contract,
and so every couple of years I would sign a
new contract, you know, and they had to pay me
a certain amount per year, and I'd get a new
Hoover appliance. And I just remember thinking, you know, because
the way it worked back the way it worked was
you back then, as a face, if I had done

(36:14):
a Hoover commercial, I couldn't do a you know, a
dirt Devil commercial for example. You had to kind of stay,
you know, whatever you did in that genre. But it
wasn't that way for singers, because I remember thinking, what
do they think, like dirt Devil is like beating my
door down, you know, but okay, like so so it's

(36:36):
a little different. You know, it's a little different. No,
singers do everything, you know, in from film to In fact,
there were a number of contractors people that would hire singers,
like say for a film coming out, you know, like
like say the film Glory, right, you know, they would
hire I think there was probably one hundred and twenty
singers singing on that film. And as a consequence, you know,

(36:58):
I get my little residual every now, because apparently it's
still being shown. Occasionally, I'll get like a you know,
it'll come through you know, sag and it'll be like
a residual for ten cents. You know. Everybody, every singer
gets those things, you know, like a ten cent residual.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
You know.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
So what's been the most unexpected like residual that you
wouldn't think of, right, I mean we assume you're getting
good Golden Girls residuals even to this day.

Speaker 4 (37:23):
Oh yeah. In fact, the pandemic was huge because that's
when the Hulu picked up The Golden Girls, and I
think Zach told me that it's streamed something like in
one week alone on Hulu, It's streamed like two point
three million times just one week. So for most people,

(37:44):
you know, the pandemic was financially a problem. For me,
I'm going, Holy cow, why have all why have my
residual checks suddenly quadrupled? You know, because and that's why,
you know, so because streaming services picked it all up,
you know, because people wanted shows like The Golden Girls.
They wanted shows that made them feel connected.

Speaker 1 (38:05):
Yeah, and joyful. They wanted yeah, and funny, funny, community funny, yeah.

Speaker 4 (38:12):
Yeah, all of that.

Speaker 3 (38:14):
I just wondered if the networks had changed the contracts
at some point to phase out as new things come along,
those sorts of long term payments, because I've got a.

Speaker 4 (38:25):
Well, I know, I think they tried, just like they've
tried everywhere. But the fact of the matter is the
Screen Actors Guild, we have celebrities. You can't do a
movie without top SAG talent, and so we have all
the cards, you know, I mean we have basically with
the exception of a couple of strikes when we really
didn't know what was going to happen with them. The

(38:47):
strike in eighty eight, which is when cable came in,
nobody really had any concept as to what cable would
be like. You know, they and the same thing. But
by two thousand and three, I think might have been
another strike right right after, right after nine to eleven,
if I remember correctly, right around and then there there

(39:09):
was a strike, and that was because they that was
when the Internet came in streaming, and by then they
realized they did not get what they really wanted with
cable all of a sudden, you know, your your song
could be played a bunch of times on cable and
you weren't making very much at all. But when you know,
but with the internet strike, both the early two thousands

(39:32):
and then the one we just had with basically AI
was the main thing, you know, because AI is pretty
scary for a performer. I mean, they could take my
voice and and just copy it and use it and
never pay me anything. So I think that what, like
I said, we're lucky because we have the top talent.

(39:53):
You know, if it wasn't for that, they would have,
you know, their money people, they would have done anything
they could to save money, you know. But with celebrities
in our corner, you know, it's it trickles down for everyone. Yeah,
the only trickle down economics that ever worked.

Speaker 1 (40:10):
Because you have a contract union.

Speaker 4 (40:13):
Yes, there you go, unions, unions, pro union.

Speaker 3 (40:16):
Because I think what most people don't understand is that
the contracts are for the people at the bottom end
of the food chain, because if you're a celebrity, you
can you have a lot more leeway to get in
your contract what you want.

Speaker 4 (40:30):
It's exactly, and you're not signing a SAG daily player's
rate for two thousand bucks a day exactly if you're
If you're a celebrity, you know you're That's why, to
this day, I'm not even though he was one of
maybe the most amazing golfer that ever lived, I'm not
a Tiger Woods fan because he crossed the picket line
during the strikes in the early two thousands, you know,
to do a commercial and that was when he was

(40:51):
in is you know, his heyday when he was winning everything,
and I thought, really, you really really need this that much,
you know, But you know that's just yeah, yeah, my
interpretation of it.

Speaker 1 (41:03):
So keep sang a song for an episode as well.
Did you go back in and do more stuff for
Golden Girls?

Speaker 4 (41:12):
That is not me?

Speaker 1 (41:13):
Oh, that's not you.

Speaker 4 (41:14):
Everyone thinks the one that you.

Speaker 1 (41:17):
Yes, that's not you.

Speaker 4 (41:18):
That's not me. No, That's why it's not on my
wiki page, you know, because that's not me singing that.
In fact, that was a question that was asked at
the Golden Girls conventions. They had the first of them
a couple of years ago, and people, you know, I
did do the song in my show for that very reason,
because you know, well, my that was that was an
interesting thing because the first year I sang, I thought, okay,

(41:40):
they want to hear me sing stuff from the Golden
Girls that was on the Golden Girls show. So I
did there, and there weren't really that many songs. I
wasn't going to go out there and sing Turkey Lurky,
you know, because that's not really that's not really a
song you sing. So I tried to pick a few things,
you know, that they had done. Uh you know. But
by the second Golden Girls convention, it became clear from

(42:03):
what people said to me that they didn't really care
that I was singing the Golden Girls stuff. They wanted
to know what I had been doing, which is what
led to the show that I'm now doing, because people
were interested and you know, here, you're this voice we've
listened to for gosh, almost forty years now, and it
means so much to most people you know that have

(42:25):
listened to it, people of all ages, because you know,
the first time we did the convention, I thought, what
are they going to be like, oh old, you know, not,
you know, are they going to be old? And they weren't.
They were young people by and large that had watched
the show with their mothers, with their grandmothers and kept
watching it because they found a sense of community and

(42:45):
a sense of family in it. So so it was
pretty interesting to see that most of these people they
wanted to know what I had done, and that's what
led to the show, you know, they and you know,
the shows I did and the shows I'm going to
do in the future. It's basically my life in music,
from starting from when I was very young. What I've sung,

(43:07):
the thing people I've met along the way, the songs
I've sung, the things that have happened to me. And
people are fascinated by it, you know. I mean I
have met a lot of very famous people that might
be part of it, but they're also just fascinated because
they've known my voice for all these years, but not
really know, you know, not really knowing my background, you know,

(43:28):
sort of the Phantom Voice.

Speaker 1 (43:31):
You are the Phantom Voice. Did you ever meet the
Golden Girls?

Speaker 4 (43:35):
I met Betty White at a screening of Evergreen, Remember
she was on Evergreen for a while. She played because
I knew someone that was in the show, and so
I went and w and I met her and she
was lovely and very nice. But I never met any
of the other ones. No, because you know, it's very separate.
You know, you come in and you sing, you do,

(43:56):
you know, because you're a singer, Sharon, You come in
and you sing, and then they put in the TV
and film industry. Then it gets put together. You know,
You're not like they're when they're when they're performing. They're
not there when you're performing.

Speaker 1 (44:10):
And did you think when you've seen it and you're realizing, oh,
this show may go on for a long time, did
you actually think you'd be going to conventions in twenty
twenty two?

Speaker 5 (44:21):
No.

Speaker 4 (44:22):
When Zach first found me, and he tells the story
that he he says he stalked me to find me
because I'm kind of hard to find. You know, I
don't know, I don't have you know, nothing's published or anything. No,
I had no idea and I don't think even Zach
knew what it was going to be, because he told

(44:42):
me that when he first came up with the idea
for the convention, he thought he'd put it on in
someone's garage, and it ended up being at Navy Peer,
one of the biggest venues in Chicago, with thousands of
people coming. You know, So no, I had no I
really had no idea. I mean I knew that people
love the sho show because throughout the years, that is

(45:02):
one thing you know that you know, when people say, oh,
you're a singer, you know, have you ever sung anything?
I would know. I mean there might be commercials that
if they're old enough they would remember, but even young
people know the Golden Girls. My son when he for
my oldest son, when he first went to college, he
called me one morning and goes, well, thanks a lot, mom,
And I go, what I do now? And he goes,

(45:23):
I went to a party last night and some girl goes, hey,
there's the guy whose mom sings the Golden Girls themes.
And he's like, and I'm going, well, you know that
show is paying for your college, so you know, be
a little more grateful. That's right, Because apparently they had
viewing parties in colleges were young kids with young girls

(45:46):
would sit or guys too. They would watch the show.
So no, I had no idea what it would And
it is interesting, isn't it, because you know, I'm not
sure that they ever you know, they've had a lot
of star treks and sci fi and things like that,
but I don't know. I mean, I haven't heard of

(46:06):
a family house convention, you know. I mean it's kind
of him doing the Golden Girls convention is kind of singular.
It's kind of new.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
Yeah, you know, it's really neat and now that we
know about it, you know, the eighties TV ladies would
be very excited to be part of the Oh.

Speaker 4 (46:24):
Yeah, because because it was wonderful. I mean literally, I
will say this. At both conventions, I did not meet
a single person that I didn't think was just lovely.
I met Marcia uh, the producer of Golden Girls, and
that's when I met Stan and what was right after
my show, I went down and they introduced themselves and

(46:45):
they and Marsha was actually in the studio when I
sang the Golden Girls theme, Oh Wow, my gosh, which
was wild because I because when Zach first approached me.
He goes, well, what do you remember about doing the song?
I said, I remember that it was really quick. I
went in there and they played me a song and
I sang it two or three times, then a couple
more times, and then I left. You know, it was

(47:06):
because you didn't know what it was. It was just
another I probably sang three different TV themes that year,
so it was just it just happened to be the
one that went and became this part of history.

Speaker 3 (47:15):
Yeah, that time, at that time were there were dozens
of new shows every year, and a whole bunch of
things that were launching, you know, getting ready to launch
that fall, and you never know, you know, somethings. Most
of the time. It's a surprise when something's hit.

Speaker 1 (47:32):
All right, So were you watching a lot of television
at that time or were you just too busy?

Speaker 4 (47:38):
Probably not. And you know what, I have watched Golden
Girls on my own. I'm you know, twenty I was
probably what twenty six at the time, a twenty six
year old who was working all the time and living
the good life. You know, I was probably not because
back then we couldn't record anything, right, you know, you
had to be sitting in front of your TV when
the time Saturday night. So probably not. I probably didn't.

(48:01):
You know, I didn't watch a lot of the episodes
till much later on, you know, when I had a
chance to watch them.

Speaker 1 (48:08):
Just yeah, So you weren't sitting in front of the TV, going, oh,
I want to be that commercial. Why didn't I get
that one? Did you ever be like, oh, I wish
I'd gotten that one?

Speaker 4 (48:17):
No, not so much, because I was really lucky. I
worked a lot. I was very, very lucky, and I
had big campaigns that went, you know, get on your
Pontiac and ride. I did that both in Los Angeles
and then later on in Chicago they resurrected it again,
Big Boys Eat. I want a clio for that one.
I sang that for, you know, the very first person

(48:39):
on the Wheaties box, Walter Payton, you know. So you know,
I was just I was very lucky to have a
lot of stuff that went, that went for long periods
of time, and to work with amazing people. And I
think part of that is because I never really approached
it like a jingle singer. I just I just sing,
you know. I from the time I've been a little kid,

(49:01):
I just sort of sing. I just opened my mouth
and let it it comes out the way it comes out.
I couldn't. I would never be able to sing a
sound alike. I'm not good at that kind of stuff.
I'm just really only good at doing me, you know.

Speaker 3 (49:13):
So do you remember the first time you heard or
watching The Golden Girls and heard yourself singing the song?

Speaker 4 (49:20):
I do. I'm sure I watched it about mid season.
I can't tell you what episode it was, but it
was like, and I may have watched the original one
because that was pretty exciting to be on a you know,
to be on a theme you know, a theme song.
I had already had sung a couple of movies stuff.
I had sung a show called a movie called Lefty
about a one arm gymnast, and I remember and I

(49:46):
watched Lefty because I had a girlfriend, a very close girlfriend,
who was an artist that was born with one arm,
and so that really meant something to me to do that.
But yeah, I do, you know, to hear your voice
on TV's pretty fun, you know, to hear your voice
on commercials or on TV. Although remember that back then,
the distinction between SAG and after back in the day

(50:09):
was that all TV shows that were any TV show
that was filmed was SAG. Anything that was videotaped was
after American Federation of TV and Recording Artists, and almost
all shows on TV were after you know that, almost
everything was videotaped. Back to the movies were what was filmed.

(50:30):
All the sitcoms were after, right.

Speaker 1 (50:33):
And we're commercial, but commercials were filmed.

Speaker 4 (50:35):
Commercials were filmed except for radio commercials. Yeah, so you
would get like say, if if one of the commercials,
say Hoover is running on radio, then I would get
a check from AFTER for that I'd get and if
it was on TV, I would get a Screen Actors Guild. So,
because back then the unions were separate, they were different.

(50:55):
I mean, we've we merged about five years ago.

Speaker 1 (50:58):
But all right, so if we should do a commercial
TV jingle, game for it, because you clearly remember your commercials,
which is I'm gonna shout out one of the jingles
and you can tell us a one line memory or
favorite line or a person you worked with from that commercial,
or you could just sing a line, because you can
get away with anything if you're singing in here.

Speaker 4 (51:21):
That's true. Okay, Actually I can get away singing what
any of them? Anywhere? People go nuts?

Speaker 1 (51:28):
All right, What the Big Boys Eat?

Speaker 4 (51:32):
That was for Ron Hicklin, And it was so exciting because,
like I said, it was a it was a Cereal box,
you know, the first time, you know, and I sang
it to a bass just a bass recording, is like.

Speaker 5 (51:45):
Come on in, take a seat, We're gonna tell you
what the Big Boys Eat?

Speaker 4 (51:50):
You know. So it was it was that was really fun.
Although it's very hard as a singer to sing to
a bass just alone, is pretty hard. But that was
a that was an exciting commercial. And like I said,
it won a bunch of cleos. So that was really
a good commercial.

Speaker 1 (52:03):
Now do you get a Cleo when you went a clean?

Speaker 4 (52:06):
I know, it's just the person that writes it.

Speaker 1 (52:09):
Oh yeah, I want to cleo. I want to cleo
at Disney for some marketing because I worked in marketing
for a while.

Speaker 4 (52:16):
But what did you win your CLEO for?

Speaker 1 (52:18):
It was for the website for the Royal Tenet bombs
And it was the second year they gave Cleo's for websites.
Uh and uh and uh. Disney got the Cleo's.

Speaker 4 (52:30):
Awesome, that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
I didn't get to take take a Cleo home.

Speaker 4 (52:34):
No I didn't.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
I did not.

Speaker 4 (52:36):
I just it was you know, the person that wrote
it got the cleo.

Speaker 1 (52:39):
So well you got the you get the you know,
the check mark. But no, is there a That's.

Speaker 4 (52:43):
Okay because I got the money there and the notoriety.
You know.

Speaker 1 (52:48):
Now, was there a female version of What the Big
Boys Eat for Mary lou Rettin? Was it a different
version of the song or was it the same thing?

Speaker 4 (52:55):
Yes, I sang all of those I sang they just
well they they I didn't if you remember the commercial,
you don't really say the person's name. What I would
do is do a voice over in between, like hey
sweetness for Walder Peyton, you know, or or you know,
you'd say like a little you'd say a little clip
in the middle of it, a voiceover. But the song
itself didn't actually mention the athletes, so they used the

(53:18):
same song over and over.

Speaker 1 (53:20):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (53:21):
I did record different versions of it at various times,
but uh, which is which is unusual because you don't
usually do that. Usually they just use, you know, you'll
do like a long like Pontiac. We did almost like
a three minute version of it. I sang that with
a wonderful singer, Mark Mark Campbell, an amazing singer. He
and I did a ton of duets at the time.
He had that big, crunchy, wonderful, big growley voice, and

(53:45):
so we would We did like a three minute version
of it for uh Lanny Music, Mark Mark uh uh Viejo,
who was just wonderful. So it was, you know, it was,
it was. It was a pretty It was a pretty
great thing to do.

Speaker 1 (54:00):
Get on your pontiac and ride Lanny Music.

Speaker 4 (54:04):
That was a They were really kind of There were
a number of really great, great music houses, but Lanny
was the more cutting edge one, you know. So it
was it was a great place to work for you
and there were a lot of There were a lot
of people that went on to become recording artists that
went through that particular one. I worked with the two

(54:27):
people that compromised Boy Meets Girl, you know, the do
you remember waiting on the Start a Fall? That was
their big hit, you know, Richard Marx. There were a
bunch of people that came through.

Speaker 1 (54:38):
Cool you know, jingles, that's cool, all right, so jingle
nobody doesn't like you? What do you remember about that?

Speaker 4 (54:48):
Well, the best story is that I was at a
session in Chicago. I'm in a session and some girl goes, man,
I wish I could do a jingle like that girl
that does that song. You know, nobody does it like you.
She must be making a fortune. And everybody kind of
looked at me, and I'm going, okay. But the other
thing was this showed me. This showed me how much
money corporations had. I got hired to come sing it

(55:10):
as a surprise guest at the Hoover Convention in Florida,
and so I was a surprise guest, so nobody really
knew I was there. And so they flew my husband
and I down there and we had this amazing bungalow
on the beach and all I had to do was
sing the song for you know, at the very end,
you know, sixty seconds of the song. And they paid

(55:31):
me just a fortune. And then the day before I sang,
they said a few of us are staying on for
another week or so if you want to stay. So
we quickly called our babysitter. You know, because that was
in the corporate heyday of so much money, and it
was like it didn't even mean any That's why in
today's world, where you know, there's such inequity in what
people get paid. I mean it's kind of always been

(55:54):
that way at the top of corporations. You know, these
people just had so much money that it didn't matter
to them. You know. I was in a bungalow on
the beach and this was I don't know twenty five
twenty seven years ago. That probably costs two grand a night,
and they just said stay another week, we don't care. Yeah. So,
but I love singing that commercial, you know, because even

(56:16):
though it was kind of odd, because it's like here,
it is like a love song to a vacuum.

Speaker 1 (56:20):
Yes, would you have any advice for singers that wanted
to make a living with music now?

Speaker 4 (56:27):
I would say, find your own voice, try not to
be you know, yes, listen to everybody you can listen to,
but find out what truly makes you special, what gives
you the most pleasure when you're singing, What do you
like about what you do, What do you like the

(56:49):
most in music? Don't try to be someone else, because
that was certainly something that was done back in the
day of the big labels. You know, they'd when lawyers
got involved, you know, they'd sign a Madonna then every
but it would be looking for someone who was like Madonna,
you know, as opposed to you know, a singular voice.
I think it's a little easier now because you can
make your own videos, put them out there, you know,

(57:11):
on TikTok, put them out there on your web pages,
you know, make your own make music. I do think
that part of what is a is harder for artists
today is that because of that, you know, they haven't
they didn't come up singing six nights a week, like
I did you know where you're singing? You know, I
sang in this kind of band. I sang in that

(57:32):
kind of band. I did a jazz trio for a while.
You find what you like best and what works best
for you when you're performing, when you see what people
what you love, what people respond to. In today's world,
I mean, so many of these artists they have never
sung in front of a live audience until they have
a hit. And also, I would say to people, even

(57:54):
though we live in a TikTok nation, we live in
in sound bites. I was at a football game in
Atlanta a few years ago, and they had this young
girl who'd won one of the talent shows, or was
on one of the big talent shows, and she came
out there at halftime to sing instead of doing one
song where she could actually, you know, a song is

(58:16):
like a play. It has a rising action, it has
a climax, it has a falling action, and as a singer,
that's what you're going through. You're building to something, you know.
But instead of doing one song, she sang bits of
five different tunes in her three minute segment, and it
never got to a point where you emotionally felt of anything.

(58:36):
It was all just kind of licks. It was just
all her like trying to sing as best she could
sing for you know, over and over different things, and
it lost that feeling of emotion. Because truly, what makes
someone respond to an artists, whether it's an Adele, whether
it's a Taylor Swift, is the emotion they're feeling through
that song, what they themselves. It's like looking at a

(58:59):
piece of art. You may not feel exactly what the
artist felt, but you're feeling something. It makes you respond
to it, and that's what true original art does. So
I would tell people try to find your own voice
and try to think less in soundbites.

Speaker 1 (59:15):
I think that's great advice. I love that. Do you remember,
let's talk about thank you, thank you for being a friend.
Why does that song resonate so much?

Speaker 4 (59:27):
Why do you think, Well, I think it's because because
I think it's because friends are the family we choose,
you know what I mean. That's why I think The
Golden Girls is so popular, because you know, families, we
love our families. I love everyone in my family, but
families are complicated. You know, when friends, when you find

(59:48):
a friend that you everyone has that meeting where you
meet someone and you go, oh my god, it seems
like I've known you forever, and it always is that
way the rest of your life. My best friend, I've
been best friends with her since I was the you know,
we met in a babysitting class and to this day
she is the person I will turn to, you know,
if I ever need someone. So, you know, I think

(01:00:09):
that I think that The Golden Girls resonated in that way.
It was the family, you know, becoming a family with
people that you weren't necessarily related to, you know, and
I think that's the biggest thing right there. Zach says,
it's because you know, Funny never dies and he's right
about that. The Golden Girls are extraordinarily funny. Every one

(01:00:32):
of them were so talented. It was so well written.
But I think it's more about family, and I think
that's why it did so well in the pandemic, because people,
you know, we couldn't be near our family, you know.
And I will say this, during the pandemic, one of
the most beautiful times I ever sang the Golden Girls
theme was I got a Facebook message from a friend
of mine who said that her one of her friends,

(01:00:55):
her girlfriend was an emergency room doc and was work
working full time all the time, and she was getting
ready to have a big birthday and this was early
in the pandemic. Would I come on to the big
birthday zoom and sing for her? And I said, absolutely sure,
I'll do that, And it was It was interesting because,

(01:01:16):
you know, it was one of those where they had,
you know, everybody had the little square, you know, new
version of the Hollywood Squares. Everyone had their little square,
And all of a sudden, I come on and I'm
like the only white face in the bottom of the screen,
you know, and I'm I'm down there, and eventually people
are starting to go, who's that girl down there because
they didn't know me. Who's that girl down there? You know,

(01:01:36):
who is that and something? So that was when the
host said, we have a special thing, and so I said, Hi,
I'm Cindy Fi and I want to thank you so
much for being such a friend to the world, for
what you're doing. You know, you're out there on the
on the front lines, helping all of us every day.
And I sang the song to her and by the
time I was done, everyone was crying every and I

(01:02:01):
after I got off the call, I thought, you know,
that may be the most favorite time I have ever
sung that song because it meant so much to all
these people. And I thought, for me, what was it?
It was what two minutes of my time? And it's
not like we all didn't have lots of time during
the pandemic anyhow, but it meant so much to these
people that I just that was when it truly hit

(01:02:23):
me how much the Golden Girls meant to people.

Speaker 1 (01:02:26):
Yeah, and that song both because it was on The
Golden Girls, but the song itself is just incredible. It's
a song that makes you feel happy.

Speaker 4 (01:02:37):
Yeah it is. It is a song that makes you
feel happy, and I know that for Andrew gold It
was a bittersweet thing because here's his song being played,
but he's an artist. It's not him singing it, and
you know it, and it's associated with the show. But
I mean for all purposes that you know, he is
a part of pop culture for writing that song as

(01:02:58):
I am for singing it. And that's not a small thing,
you know, because to this day, like I said, people
still respond to that. And that's that's something really special.
I mean, like I said, I I can name commercials
and many people know them, but the Golden Girls theme
everyone knows. I have never once said to someone when

(01:03:18):
they asked me what I sang, you know, I sang,
thank you for being a friend from the Golden Girls.
I even used it to get a dog during the
pandemic because nobody was paying attention when I would like,
you know, try to email about an animal. And one
day I woke up and I saw this picture and
I went, that dog is supposed to be my dog.
I know it. I know it. So I sent them
an email and I thought, what can I do to

(01:03:40):
be special? And I said, I want to thank you
for being a friend to animals. And by the way,
I sang the song thank you for.

Speaker 6 (01:03:46):
Being a friend, and they called me immediately, immediately, and
so I kind of thought, well, I don't use it
very often, but I used it when I needed to.

Speaker 4 (01:03:56):
That was my ace in the hole. So you know,
that was for a good we was a good cause.
And I love this dog so much to this day.

Speaker 1 (01:04:04):
We got COVID kittens. That it was everybody was getting
their their COVID animals because we needed love and support
and we wanted to love and support things.

Speaker 4 (01:04:15):
Exactly because did we even know, you know, when it
was going to open up? What you know, I mean,
the whole world was traumatized, and you know, I mean
it was we were all collectively traumatized, and animals at
least gave us, you know, some feeling of normal see
and love.

Speaker 3 (01:04:32):
Yeah. Did you did you ever meet Andrew Gold?

Speaker 4 (01:04:35):
I didn't. I didn't, uh uh, because you know, by
we were kind of in different circles. He was part
of the LA songwriting scene and the artists scene. And
since I'd never had big hit records of my own,
I mean, I sang I'm one of Kenny Rodgers records
with him. I sang a duet with him. But since
I had not, you know, my recording deals had not

(01:04:56):
worked out. I was. I was in kind of a
differ musical circuit, although I did have many friends who
were in that circuit. Rosemary Butler is a singer that
she sang on Jackson Brown's the Oh Won't You Stay?
And she sang with everybody and she was so there
were some people that crossed back and forth, but you know,

(01:05:18):
not me as much.

Speaker 1 (01:05:19):
So who are some of the top people that you
really enjoyed working with over the years, Like Dolly Parton?

Speaker 4 (01:05:27):
You know, Dolly was amazing. I loved working with Lionel Ritchie.
He produced a number of Kenny's records when I was
singing with Kenny. And what was amazing about Lionel is
that he was so secure in his musical talent that
he didn't care who came up with an idea. It
could be the guy sweeping the floor out back. He
just was just missed. He was just mister music. Kenny

(01:05:51):
was great. Kenny was very interesting. You know, he was
a star, you know at that time, a big star,
and he kind of lived the life of a big star.
You know, there were but I have to say, probably
the most starstruck I ever was was with someone that
you wouldn't even probably know, a guy named Ken Vassi
who was in the second edition of the first edition,

(01:06:13):
and kN was the most soulful singer I have ever
heard in my life. He sang with Frank Zappa, He
sang with all these people, and just for me, it
wasn't really the celebrities as much. I sang with Bill
Medley of the Medley Brothers. He was great, you know.
I sang on a bunch of Whitney Houston records and
that was great to sing. But she was never there.
I never saw her, so I never met her, so,

(01:06:36):
you know, and that happened a lot where you would
go into sing and the artist wasn't there.

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 4 (01:06:41):
So here's a great story that I sang with Kenny.
I sang he was wanted Barbara streisand to do a
duet with him. So I sang the Barbara streisand Part
and it was a good song and I sang it
pretty well. And she turned down the song and said,
never send me anything with that girl singing on it again.
So I took that as a compliment.

Speaker 3 (01:07:00):
Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (01:07:00):
Think that's a compliment.

Speaker 1 (01:07:02):
Yes, you made Barbar Streisand feel like she couldn't sing it.

Speaker 4 (01:07:10):
Well, just different. It's never although Barbara Streisand was certainly
one of the singular voices in music period, you know so,
but you know, once again, it just comes back to
the idea that to young singers, be yourself. You can't
be You're never going to sing a Streisand song better
than Streisand you're not going to sing an Adele song
better than Adele. It's not about the licks you do.

(01:07:34):
It's about the emotion that comes through what you do,
whether you're acting or whether you're singing. It's emotion because
that's what holds people to you. That's my advice.

Speaker 1 (01:07:47):
That's pretty good advice.

Speaker 4 (01:07:48):
Yeah, you know, and you know, don't let other people's
perception of what you might not be everyone's cup of tea,
but you're going to be many people's cup of tea.
Not everyone's gonna love what you do, but the right
people will. And that's what I always carried through with
me when I went on big sessions, like when I
sang on that session with Linda Ronstead. You know, it's like,

(01:08:11):
you know, I'm not going to be intimidated. I'm just
gonna do what I do. You know, just take it,
take a deep breath, and just do what you do,
because what else can you do. I don't like the
shows so much, the voice and shows like that, because
I think we're all apples and oranges and pears and
for simmons, and everyone's so different, and how can you

(01:08:32):
say this person's better than that person? You know, I
think that that. I think I would tell young singers
to mostly not pay that much attention to those kind
of shows, to just go out and, you know, be
who you are, try to sing live, try to find it,
you know, go sing with someone, even if you're not
making much money, just to get a chance to go
out there and sing. And you know, there's something about

(01:08:54):
singing a lot. Sing as much as you can. You know,
the voice is a muscle. The more you sing, the
stronger it gets, like anything else. If you don't lift weights,
you know, if you're not if you're not singing, you know,
you can't expect to go out there and just sing
as great as you could as you can. You have
to exercise it.

Speaker 1 (01:09:14):
Do you teach? Are you a teacher? You teach music?

Speaker 2 (01:09:19):
No?

Speaker 4 (01:09:20):
I don't really like to teach. I have taught classes
like at universities on jingles.

Speaker 1 (01:09:26):
You've have good advice and you're very inspiring, So well
you can just talk about that in your show.

Speaker 4 (01:09:30):
I guess, well, I'm opinionated.

Speaker 1 (01:09:34):
I am that.

Speaker 4 (01:09:35):
Yeah, I'm opinionated. Uh, and I know what has worked
for me. That's all I can tell people to do,
you know, to you know, try to find yourself. That's
the most important thing, not don't be anybody else.

Speaker 1 (01:09:47):
All right, Well, what's up next for you? Where can
people find you? Is there going to be another Golden
Girls con.

Speaker 4 (01:09:54):
I'm not sure about the Golden Girls Convention because I
don't think Zach wants to do it anymore. It's possible be.
If it is, it probably will be taken over by
Disney because he wants. He's pretty much staying on as
my manager now. He wants. We're talking, We're getting ready,
We're booking things for the winter in different cities across
the country, getting my website together so that I can

(01:10:19):
actually talk to people in that particular way. I'm an actress.
There may be some acting roles here in the future,
coming up with things like that. You know, it's kind
of like, you know, this whole thing was sort of
like a you know, like another act. You get to
a certain age and you go, Okay, you know, I
can still sing, I can still do what I do.

(01:10:40):
You know, what's my next act going to be? Is
there going to be another act? I would there's a
particularly gifted musician in Los Angeles I've known for many years.
I'd like to do a duets album with. I'm not
interested in going out there and doing a sixty date
tour at my age, but I am interested in getting
out there and talking to people and singing for people

(01:11:01):
because I still do what I do. I still am
who I am.

Speaker 1 (01:11:04):
So I'm thrilled that you guys reached out, and I'm
thrilled that we got you on the show and you're
going to be part of our Golden Girls series of episodes.
It's very exciting.

Speaker 4 (01:11:15):
That's wonderful, and I love what you guys do. I
looked at a few of your shows. I think what
you guys do is wonderful because there will never be
another decade in the entertainment industry like the eighties in
terms of what was done on TV and how much
it means to people in my show, you know, since
everyone of course is waiting for me to sing the

(01:11:36):
Golden Girls theme, which I do at a certain point.

Speaker 1 (01:11:39):
I do.

Speaker 4 (01:11:39):
At one point I do like I act like I'm
going to sing it, and then I sing a couple
of other theme songs, bits from other theme songs, just
to sort of build up. But what I'd like to
say to you guys.

Speaker 1 (01:11:49):
Is thank you.

Speaker 5 (01:11:51):
Will be in a free traveled down the road and
back again, your heartiest thank you, your repel and a confidant.
And it's fifth through a party and invited everyone you

(01:12:11):
knew you would see. The biggest gift would be from me,
and the card attached would say thank you for being
a friend.

Speaker 3 (01:12:29):
Oh my gosh, that is thank you, that is so amazing,
so amazing, Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (01:12:36):
Thank you. That was just too special.

Speaker 4 (01:12:39):
Thank you so much for everything, and keep doing what
you guys are doing. Thank you well, Thank you guys
for winning all these awards. You guys are really tearing.

Speaker 1 (01:12:46):
We've had a good year. We've had a good year,
really blessed.

Speaker 4 (01:12:49):
So thanks so much. We'll see you again.

Speaker 1 (01:12:51):
We'll see you. You know here at Abes TV ladies,
how much we love to shout out the amazing ladies
of the twentieth and twenty first century, and we love
podcasts who shout out amazing ladies of anytime, So we
want to tell you about the Art News podcast. Every
episode they focus on telling the stories of the women
pictured in the most famous works of art through history.

Speaker 3 (01:13:15):
What an incredible idea for a podcast. Please check out
art News Podcast and hear host Grace Anna, who aims
to reinterpret works of art by bringing the stories of
the women in those paintings to life. Who are these
women and what are their stories? You can find out
at artmeuspodcast dot com. In today's audiography, you can find

(01:13:38):
out more about Cindy Fiat or Instagram, Instagram dot com, slash.
Thank you for being a fan, and there will be
links in our description to some of her commercials and
other work you know.

Speaker 1 (01:13:52):
Here at ABSTV Ladies. How much we love to shout
out the amazing ladies of the twentieth and twenty first century,
and we love podcast us who shout out amazing ladies
of anytime, So we want to tell you about the
Art News podcast. Every episode they focus on telling the
stories of the women pictured in the most famous works
of art through history.

Speaker 3 (01:14:14):
What an incredible idea for a podcast, Please check out
art News Podcast and hear host Grace Anna, who aims
to reinterpret works of art by bringing the stories of
the women in those paintings to life. Who are these
women and what are their stories? You can find out
at artnewspodcast dot com. We hope Eighties TV Ladies brings

(01:14:36):
you joy and laughter and lots of fabulous new and
old shows to watch, all of which will lead us
forward toward being amazing ladies of the twenty first century.

Speaker 5 (01:15:00):
You can happen, bore the money in the Bamber, anything
nas

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An Iconic Voice | The Last Golden Girl Cindy Fee on the Art of TV Themes

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}An Iconic Voice | The Last Golden Girl Cindy Fee on the Art of TV Themes