The “Golden Hits Of The 70s”
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ALAN O’DAY
“UNDERCOVER ANGEL”
(ALAN O’DAY)
Pacific 001
No. 1 July 9, 1977
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“There was a local hit on the radio called ‘He Did Me Wrong, but He Did Me Right’ by Patti Dahlstrom,”
Alan O’Day told Fred Bronson in The Billboard Book of Number One Hits. “In that song, she used the
word ‘undercover.’ I thought it was a neat idea. I’ve always loved things about angels, too, so the words
came together.” O’Day’s own “Undercover Angel,” a hypnagogic, spacey tune with sexual undertones, shot
to the top of the charts.
Alan was born in Hollywood on October 3, 1940. As a tot, he’d tap on a tiny xylophone until Ma and Pa
turned him loose on a piano. Spike Jones was his favorite–that is, until he saw Blackboard Jungle
(1955), with Sidney Poitier, those delinquent teens, and that “Rock Around the Clock” noise provided by
spit-curled Bill Haley. Thereafter, while attending Coachella Valley Union High School, O’Day played in
rock’n’roll bands with names like the Imperials, the Renees, and the Shoves.
While working at a $1.50 an hour job at a nearby recording studio, Alan met Sidney Goldstein, who liked
the kind of tunes that Alan was knocking out and signed him on as a writer for his Viva Music publishing
firm. O’Day eventually wrote tunes for Cher, Dobie Gray, and Bobby Sherman, and had several of his
numbers popularized by Helen Reddy (“Angle Baby”) and the Righteous Brothers (“Rock and Roll
Heaven”).
In 1977, Ed Silvers, the president of Warner Bros. Music, gave Alan the chance to record some of his
songs–Warner had recently purchased Viva, and was launching a new label for its own staff songwriters.
Alan O’Day was the first artist to record for Pacific Records, and “Undercover Angel” was the first thing he
etched in vinyl.