DESCRIPTION:
Alan O'Day was born October 3, 1940 in Hollywood, California and was the only child of Earle and Jeannette O'Day. His parents both worked for the Pasadena Star News, his father as a photographer and his mother wrote articles in addition to being a school teacher. He became enamored of the xylophone at the age of six and idolized musician Spike Jones who specialized in novelty tunes. His grandmother bought him a piano when he was nine and Alan remembers it as being "the most important gift anybody ever gave him". He learned to play the ukulele, began working with his own band, then moved on to rock and roll covers of Fats Domino, Elvis, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis. A side project saw him experimenting with latin rhythms and soon he began writing his own music. In 1962 he worked with director and old high school buddy Arch Hall Jr and worked as musical director on Hall's "Eegah" which gained notoriety as one of the 50 Worst Films of All Time by film critic Michael Medved (and it is deliciously bad!) . Forming another band in 1965, "Alan & Bob & Denny" they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and became the backup band for Virginia O'Brien. Check out her video at https://youtu.be/TLNql9aAjf0 Signed to Warner Bros in 1971 as a writer, he scored hits with Bobby Sherman (The Drum, #29 1971), Cher (Train Of Thought, #27, 1974), The Righteous Brothers (Rock & Roll Heaven, #3 1974) and Helen Reddy (Angie Baby, #1 1974) before turning his attentions to his own career with "Undercover Angel", (#1 1977). His first solo LP issued in 1973, "Caress Me Pretty Music" did not deliver any hits and he focused on songwriting. His second LP became a reality when Warner Bros Records decided to sign him as the first recording artist on a new label imprint called Pacific that was to specialize in singer/songwriters. The first verse of the song that became to be known as "Undercover Angel" had been written when Alan remembered a song by Patti Dahlquist (Keep Our Love Alive, 1975) called "He Did Me Wrong, But He Did Me Right" that used the word undercover in a sly double entendre that fascinated him. Blending the reality with some fantasy like he did with Helen Reddy's "Angie Baby" was a genius move and he set about recording the song with legendary producer Tom Dowd. O'Day had a flare up of allergic reactions during the sessions due to his affliction with bronchial pneumonia when he was a child and the album was put on hold as Dowd departed after completing the basic tracks. Enter producer Steve Barri, who was then hot with the "Theme From S.W.A.T." a #1 hit for Rhythm Heritage in February of 1976. Barri proclaimed the song a smash and kept the finished tracks as close to Alan's demo as possible. The spaced out echo was improvised in the studio when Alan manually ran the taped echo by hand speeding up and slowing it down a bit that gave the song its unique distorted sound. If you listen closely, you can hear Dolly Parton singing background vocals during the chorus. NOT!! its actually Carol Parks, according to Alan O'Day. My mistake! The single was released April 2, 1977 and hit #1 July 9 for one week. The official follow up "Started Out Dancing, Ended Up Making Love" stalled at #73 and became his last charting hit. His "Skinny Girls" single of 1980 became a regional hit in Australia, and then in 1983 co-wrote "Your Eyes" with Japanese artist Tatsuro Yamashita that was big in Japan. Building on his overseas success, he co-wrote six songs for Yamashita's follow up LP "Big Wave" and won Gold Disc Award for it. He was never able to duplicate his US pop success and turned his attentions to songwriting and in 1985 attached himself to the "Muppet Babies" animated telecast on Saturday mornings. He released one more album in 2013, "Make Me Believe" that contained "Uh-Oh (What She Wants) and an unofficial NASCAR theme called "NASCAR Crazy" where he stepped into the producers chair. O'Day suffered from brain cancer that was diagnosed in late 2012 and he passed into the eternal on May 17, 2013.