Andy Paley

Andrew Douglas Paley (November 2, 1952 – November 20, 2024) was an American songwriter, record producer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist who formed the Paley Brothers, a 1970s power pop duo, with his brother Jonathan Paley. Following their disbandment, Paley was a staff producer at Sire Records, producing albums for artists, such as Brian Wilson, Jonathan Richman, NRBQ, John Wesley Harding, the Greenberry Woods, and Jerry Lee Lewis. He also worked in film and television, composing scores and writing songs mostly for animated series, such as The Ren & Stimpy Show, Digimon, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Camp Lazlo.

Andy was the son of Henry Paley, a college administrator and lobbyist,^[2] and Cabot Barber Paley, a teacher and therapist.^[3] He was the third of five children and grew up near Albany, New York.^[3] His younger sister Sarah is married to former U.S. senator Bob Kerrey. In 2010, he married Heather Crist in a ceremony officiated by Kerrey.^[4]

Paley began performing in his early teens as a drummer and singer for local Albany-area bands before moving to Boston. He was a founding member and the drummer of the Boston, Massachusetts band, Catfish Black, which also included future Modern Lovers members Jerry Harrison and Ernie Brooks. The band was renamed the Sidewinders and was later joined by Billy Squier. The band performed around Boston and in New York at venues like Max's Kansas City. They released an album, produced by Lenny Kaye, which featured songs written and sung by Paley. The Sidewinders broke up in the mid-1970s. Paley then played on Elliott Murphy's album Night Lights, and performed with Jonathan Richman after the break-up of the original Modern Lovers.^[6]

Paley went on to form The Paley Brothers^[7] with his younger brother Jonathan, a guitar/bass player and singer who also was part of the early Boston punk scene and had played with Boston and New York bands such as Mong. They disintegrated as an act in 1979 when Jonathan joined the Nervous Eaters. Although the Nervous Eaters collapsed after Ric Ocasek, who had produced their demo, was not permitted to produce their second album,^[8] the Paley Brothers did not reform. Said Jonathan, "It was more of an evolution. Andy went on the road with Patti Smith's band and got into production work; I went and sailed around the world."^[9]

In 1979, Andy Paley played guitar on Jonathan Richman's album Back in Your Life, and continued to perform on and off with Richman and later incarnations of the Modern Lovers, and produce many of their recordings, through the 1980s. He produced Richman's 1985 album Rockin' and Romance. Paley then focused on songwriting, session work and record production while working with Madonna, k.d. lang, Mandy Barnett, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elton John, Brenda Lee, Little Richard and many others.

In 1988, Paley produced and co-wrote songs on Wilson's solo comeback album Brian Wilson, and continued to work with him on unreleased material in the 1990s.^[10] Wilson described Paley as a multi-instrumentalist with "a lot of talent for anything you can think of. ... He's the most frighteningly talented person that I've met, and the most serious about music."^[11]

Paley produced the soundtracks for Dick Tracy (1990) and A Walk on the Moon (1999) and wrote the original music for Traveller (1997, starring Bill Paxton). In 2009, he contributed to the soundtrack of World's Greatest Dad, directed by Bobcat Goldthwait and starring Robin Williams. He also wrote the musical score for the first season of Showtime's The L Word.^{[citation needed]}

Paley also scored for cartoons such as The Ren & Stimpy Show,^[12] and later wrote and produced the music for Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants. He and Tom Kenny – the voice of SpongeBob – co-wrote the It's a SpongeBob Christmas! Album (2012). Paley and Kenny were also both members of Tom Kenny and the Hi-Seas.^{[citation needed]} He led the Andy Paley Orchestra, which provided the music for The Thrilling Adventure & Supernatural Suspense Hour, a theater group in Los Angeles that performs original stage productions in the style of old radio melodramas. Additionally he provided music for The Dana Gould Hour podcast.^[13]

In July 2024, Paley was diagnosed with throat cancer. Though he was successfully treated and had been cancer-free from September, it was found to have returned on November 7, after he was admitted to a hospital in Burlington, Vermont. On November 11, Paley woke up in the middle of the night with extreme shoulder pain that soon spread to his whole body. He was discharged from the hospital on November 14 to see an oncologist. On November 17, he was brought to the emergency room for low blood oxygen. The following day, an oncologist declared the cancer too advanced to treat and he was re-admitted to hospital. On November 20, he was moved to a respite house.^[14] He died later that day at the age of 72.^[15]

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (June 2017)

Albums produced

• Andy Paley at AllMusic
• Andy Paley discography at Discogs
• Andy Paley at IMDb