Alan O’Day

Alan Earle O'Day (October 3, 1940 – May 17, 2013) was an American singer-songwriter, best known for writing and singing "Undercover Angel", a million-selling Gold-certified American No. 1 hit in 1977. He also wrote songs for many other notable performers, such as 1974's Helen Reddy No. 1 hit "Angie Baby" and "Rock and Roll Heaven" (originally by Climax and made famous by the Righteous Brothers). In the 1980s he moved from pop music to television, co-writing nearly 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. O'Day also collaborated with Tatsuro Yamashita on a series of popular songs in Japan, including "Your Eyes", "Magic Ways", "Christmas Eve" and "Fragile" (which rapper Tyler, the Creator interpolated in "Gone, Gone / Thank You").

O'Day was born in Hollywood, California, United States, the only child of Earle and Jeannette O'Day, who both worked at 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 said he remembered creating melodies on a xylophone at the age of six. By fifth grade, his favorite artist was Spike Jones and he was serenading classmates on the ukulele. At Coachella Valley Union High School, after participating in a band called The Imperials, he started his own band, The Shoves, heavily influenced by Jerry Lee Lewis, Ray Charles, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, and Fats Domino. It appeared on KABC-TV/Los Angeles's Hub Talent Show on August 25, 1958. A third band, The Renés (O'Day, Oscar Arias, Eddie Arias, Ernie Gurrola, Sal Velasquez, Johnny Alvarez and Don Duarte), played Latin and Mexican standards mixed with rock and roll tunes and gave O'Day the chance to write his own songs. In 1958, R&B pioneer Johnny Otis auditioned the Renés after a singer they were backing didn't pass muster. Impressed with their playing and O'Day's songs, Otis recorded and produced the band performing three O'Day originals and a few covers at El Dorado Studios in Hollywood over a few sessions, but the recordings were never released, as all the members of the Renés were minors.

In 1961, O'Day 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, in 1963 as sound recorder on The Sadist, and in 1964 as sound mixer on What's Up Front! After Eegah, Hall Jr. and O'Day put together a four-piece band, The Archers, played in clubs on the Sunset Strip such as Whisky a Go Go and Pandora's Box, and served as the backing band for Dobie Gray.

Around 1965, O'Day was in the band Alan & Bob & Denny, a show group that did pop songs and some comedy. They played nightclubs in Pasadena and Hollywood, and were on The Ed Sullivan Show on November 14, 1965, as the backup band for singer-actress-comedian Virginia O'Brien.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.