Alan O'Day (born October 3, 1940) is an American singer-songwriter, best known for writing and singing "Undercover Angel," a song which was number 1 in 1977. He also wrote songs for several other notable performers, such as 1974's Helen Reddy number 1 hit "Angie Baby" and the Righteous Brothers' number 3 hit "Rock And Roll Heaven". In the 1980s he moved from pop music to television, co-writing over 100 songs for the Saturday morning Muppet Babies series, and in the 1990s he wrote and performed music on the National Geographic series "Really Wild Animals".
Biography
Early years
O'Day was born in Hollywood, California, the only child of Earle and Jeannette O'Day, both of whom worked in journalism, for the Pasadena Star-News. Earle took newspaper photos and did publicity for the Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce. Jeannette wrote for the Star News, as well as being a schoolteacher in Thermal, California and other schools in the Coachella Valley.
O'Day states that he remembers creating melodies on a xylophone at the age of six. By the fifth grade, his favorite artist was Spike Jones, and he was serenading his class on the ukulele. At Coachella Valley Union High School, after participating in one band called "The Imperials," he started his own rock'n'roll band, "The Shoves," with heavy influences from Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, and Fats Domino. A third band, "The Renés" played Latin and Mexican standards mixed with rock and roll tunes and gave him the opportunity to write his own songs.
In 1961, he found work via a friend from high school, Arch Hall, Jr., whose father, Arch Hall, Sr., was an independent movie producer. The senior Hall wrote and produced films that starred the junior Hall, and O'Day helped out with the sound, in 1962 acting as music editor on the film Eegah and musical director on Wild Guitar, sound recorder on 1963's The Sadist, and sound mixer on the 1964 What's Up Front!. The work led to Arch Jr. and O'Day putting together a four-piece band (called "The Archers") and playing in clubs on the Sunset Strip such as Whiskey A Go Go and Pandora's Box.
Around 1965, O'Day was in the band "Alan & Bob & Denny," a show group which did pop songs and some comedy. They played nightclubs in the Pasadena & Hollywood area, and were on the Ed Sullivan Show on November 14, 1965, as the backup band for singer/actress/comedienne Virginia O'Brien.
Songwriter
Despite his existing body of work, he was unhappy with his career thus far, and decided to change course and concentrate on songwriting. In 1969, he signed with E. H. Morris Music, followed by Warner Brothers Music in 1971, writing "The Drum," which became a hit single for Bobby Sherman. In 1974, three more of his songs did well: "Train of Thought," recorded by Cher; "Rock And Roll Heaven," cut by the Righteous Brothers; and "Angie Baby," sung by Helen Reddy.
"Angie Baby" hit #1 at the end of December 1974 and became one of Reddy's biggest-selling singles. In an article he wrote in 2006, O'Day said the song took three months to write. Originally it was loosely based on the character in the Beatles’ "Lady Madonna". In order to make the character more interesting, he decided to make her abnormal, and he thought of a young next door neighbor girl he had known who had seemed "socially retarded." O'Day said he also thought to his own childhood, since as an only child who was often ill, many of his days were spent in bed with a radio to keep him company. He named the character Angie. Originally the character was just supposed to be mentally "slow," but while writing the song, O'Day showed it to his therapist, who pointed out that the character's reactions in the song were not those of a retarded person, so O'Day changed the lyric from "Slow" to "Touched," and the character switched from retarded to "crazy." This expanded to her living in a dream world of lovers, inspired by the songs on her radio. When an evil-minded neighbor tries to enter her room to take advantage of the girl, he is instead drawn into her reality, with weird and unexpected consequences. The intent was to show that the Angie character had more power than he or the listener expected; she literally shrank him down into her radio, where he remained as her slave whenever she desired him to come out.
Not everyone understood the meaning of O'Day's lyrics, and when the song was released, it inspired a great deal of speculation as to its true meaning. The song was compared to Bobbie Gentry’s "Ode To Billie Joe" (which had a mystery about "something" thrown off the Tallahatchie Bridge). Some also thought of it as a "Women's Lib" song along the line of Reddy's other hits, like her other #1's, "I Am Woman" and "Delta Dawn," though O'Day says that that was not his intent, and that he was not consciously making a public statement.
Solo career
In 1977, Warner Brothers Music decided to form a special label for their composers who also performed. O'Day was the first artist signed, and the first release was "Undercover Angel." The song, which he described as a "nocturnal novelette," was released without fanfare in February 1977. But within a few months it had become #1 in the country, and has sold approximately two million copies.
A follow-up single, "Skinny Girls", became a #1 song in Australia in 1980. In 1981, O'Day co-wrote "Your Eyes" with singer-songwriter Tatsuro Yamashita, which became a hit in Japan.
O'Day left Warner Brothers in 1982 to write and self-publish. In 1983 he was invited to Tokyo to co-write six more songs with Yamashita for his album Big Wave. The collaboration yielded a Gold Disc Award in Japan.
Television
In 1983 O'Day met singer-songwriter Janis Liebhart, with whom he co-wrote a children's song for a new Saturday morning animated TV show, Jim Henson's Muppet Babies. Within eight years they had written almost 100 songs for the program, which won an Emmy Award, and has since been syndicated internationally.
The collaboration continued after Muppet Babies, as O'Day and Liebhart co-wrote for other kid-focused projects, including National Geographic's "Really Wild Animals", a series of videos which they helped produce and on which they also sang. They also worked on some children's products for Alaska Video.
O'Day currently lives in Los Angeles, continues to write and perform, and is also a musical and creative consultant.
Awards
- "Angie Baby", gold record
- "Undercover Angel", gold record
- "Muppet Babies", nominated for an Emmy Award
- "Really Wild Animals", Parent's Choice Award
- Yamashita collaboration, Gold Disk Award, Japan
Discography
Selected singles
- "The Drum", 1971 (sung by Bobby Sherman), #29 in the U.S.
- "Train of Thought", 1974 (sung by Cher) - #27 in the U.S., #22 in Canada
- "Rock and Roll Heaven", 1974 (sung by the Righteous Brothers), #3 in the U.S., produced by Dennis Lambert, Eddie Lambert, and Brian Potter
- "Angie Baby", 1974 (sung by Helen Reddy, #1 song, produced by Joe Wizzert
- "Undercover Angel", 1977, #1 song, produced by Steve Barri, arranged by Michael Omartian
- "Skinny Girls", produced by Steve Barri
- "Love Can Go the Distance", 2000 (cowritten and sung by Tatsuro Yamashita), #18 in Japan
- "Angel of the Light", 2008 (cowritten and sung by Tatsuro Yamashita), #4 Japan
Albums
- Undercover Angel 2001 — Alan O'Day, City Man Music, BMI, Warner/Chappell Music, ASCAP 634479217920
- Oh Johnny (1979) — Alan O'Day
- Appetizers (1977) — Alan O'Day
- Caress Me Pretty Music (1973) — Alan O'Day
External links
