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.
Paley began performing in his early teens as a drummer and singer for local Albany-area bands before moving to Boston.
Paley then played on Elliott Murphy's album Night Lights, and performed with Jonathan Richman after the break-up of the original Modern Lovers.
"[13] 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).
[citation needed] Paley also scored for cartoons such as The Ren & Stimpy Show,[14] and later wrote and produced the music for Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants.
[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.
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.
Heather Crist Paley wrote on her blog that her husband's health steadily deteriorated over the following days, and he was eventually admitted to a hospice facility in Colchester, Vermont.