Cindy Fee is a singer and recording artist. She is best known for performing,”Thank You For Being A Friend”, the opening theme song for the Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning sitcom, “The Golden Girls.”

Fee started performing professionally at the age of sixteen, working Kansas City area restaurants, clubs, local theaters, and amusement parks. In 1973, Fee became a founding member, along with Eric Bikales, of the Kansas City band Hotfoot and also sang with the jazz group, the Means/Devan Trio.

She is married to Robert Landis and has two adult children, Ethan and Rory Landis. Fee frequently performs a genre she calls, “country soul”, a combination of Motown and country, and has appeared live at venues including in Nashville, Chicago, Los Angeles, and in Europe.

 

Advertising and jingle recording success

Fee is also a prolific jingle and TV commercial singer. Fee’s commercial jingle credits include: for Hoover Vacuum “Nobody Does it Like You”; “Get on Your Pontiac and Ride”;] and “What the Big Boys Eat”; from the Wheaties cereal campaign. 

Fee’s voice was also featured in commercials for Chevy Trucks, McDonald’s,Miller Beer, Chick-fil-A, Home Depot, Goodyear,Hot Pockets, Barbie, John Deere, NASCAR, Ford, Toyota, Purina, Avon, and American Airlines. Fee’s Wheaties and Hoover commercials were awarded Clio awards.

“Thank You For Being a Friend”

Between 1985 and 1992, millions of viewers tuned in weekly to the NBC television series, “The Golden Girls,” bringing the voice of Cindy Fee singing the Andrew Gold song, “Thank You For Being a Friend,” to a national audience every Saturday night.

The show, and Fee’s theme song, became so iconic that even U.S. President Barack Obama released a video of himself grooving to Fee’s performance.

 After The Golden Girls‘ star Betty White’s death in 2021, the popular sitcom and Fee’s opening theme song was streamed 384 million times in one week alone. During the COVID-19 “Lockdown TV Phenomenon”] in 2020, Hulu viewers streamed 11 million hours of The Golden Girls in April alone, providing extensive renewed exposure to Fee’s performance.  Despite the show’s nearly 40 year tenure, The Golden Girls continues to attract a mass audience and Fee remains a fan-favorite. 

Other recording work

Fee also recorded chart-topping records with some of the best-selling music artists of all time. Her discography includes the duet with Kenny Rogers, “I Don’t Want to Know Why” from the platinum selling album, What About Me? 

Fee is also a credited background singer on the album, Kenny Rogers — Christmas which peaked at #34 on U.S. charts and Share Your Love, the Kenny Rogers album that peaked at #6 on U.S. charts.  She also performed as a background singer for Garth Brooks, Dolly Parton, Whitney Houston, and Lionel Richie.] Fee also released her own albums Dancin In My Sleep and Young at Heart, the latter with noted rockabilly guitarist Eddie Angel, founding member of Los Straitjackets.