Former KC woman who sang ‘Golden Girls’ theme song reminds Emmys: ‘I’m still here’
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Cindy Fee, original voice of 'Golden Girls' theme, reminds fans she's active.
- Fee plans to release a re-recorded version of the song with fan photo tributes.
- Fee's voice gained fame through jingles, TV themes, and collaborations with stars.
The Emmy Awards last week paid tribute to popular TV shows celebrating big anniversaries this year. “Law & Order.” “Grey’s Anatomy.” “Gilmore Girls.”
Marking the 40th anniversary of “The Golden Girls,” Reba McEntire and Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman sang the show’s famous theme song on a set like the Miami kitchen where TV’s favorite senior ladies ate a lot of late-night cheesecake.
The audience inside the Peacock Theater in downtown LA enthusiastically sang along because who doesn’t know the words to “Thank You For Being A Friend”?
But there was one person who wished she’d been there to sing it herself: Cindy Fee, the Raytown High School graduate who sang the song for the beloved sitcom.
You never saw her face, but she considered herself a golden girl, too.
She posted a video to Instagram a few days after the Emmys to remind the world that, hey, she’s still around and still singing.
Even better for fans of the show, she’s releasing a new version of the song this fall and invites the public to be part of the video.
“Hi there. I’m Cindy Fee, the singer of ‘Thank You for Being a Friend’ from ‘The Golden Girls,’” she introduced herself on Instagram last week, when she also started a TikTok account, @goldengirlfee.
“Now you all know I love Cher, love Reba, and the ladies of Little Big Town. But I want you to know that I’m still here and as the last remaining golden girl, I can still sing.”
Then she sang the first few words of the song: “Thank you for being a friend.”
Fee was born in Detroit but according to published reports grew up in Raytown, where she graduated from Raytown High School in 1973. She scored her first singing gigs in Kansas City, including a job singing the first year the Tivoli performing arts theater was open at Worlds of Fun.
She also sang in the local 1970s band, Hotfoot, before touring off and on with her own band.
According to the biography Raytown High published when she was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 2022, Fee traveled nationwide as a band singer and solo recording artist. She sang background for a slew of entertainers, including Whitney Houston, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, Lionel Richie and Garth Brooks.
A lot of people heard her voice in the 1980s and ‘90s when she sang some of the most recognizable jingles on TV.
She received the advertising world’s prestigious Clio Awards for that work, including “What the Big Boys Eat” for Wheaties and “Nobody Does It Like You” for Hoover vacuums.
A new version coming
Singer Andrew Gold wrote “Thank You For Being a Friend,” released on his third album in 1978 before it was used for “The Golden Girls.”
Fee became so closely identified with the song that one of her two sons called her from college to tell her he’d gone to a party and was immediately recognized as “the guy whose mom sings the ‘Golden Girls’ theme.”
She still sings the song at events for “Golden Girls” fans. She headlined the first Golden Girls convention that drew thousands of devotees to Chicago in April 2022.
“If you’re not a fan of ‘The Golden Girls,’ it would be like not liking puppies,” McEntire told E! before the Emmys.
When she reintroduced herself on Instagram last week, Fee announced that she is re-recording the theme song and invited the public to be part of the accompanying video.
To her “golden girlfriends,” she said: “I’m releasing a new brand new version of ‘Thank You For Being a Friend’ this fall. I want you to be a part of my new video by sharing photos of you and your friends showing off your love of the girls. because after all this song is about celebrating friendship and love.”
If you’d like to submit a photo, email them to zack@thankyouforbeingafan.com.
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