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Post subject: Alan "Undercover Angel" O'Day Gone!
Posted: Sun May 19, 2013 2:48 pm
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One of the "NICE GUYS" in the LA/Nashville music circuit has passed. Alan O'Day was a popular and busy songwriter from the 70's right up until his final days finally succumbing to brain cancer at age 72. His most commercially successful songs came in the 1970's and early 80's.

When Warner Brothers launched a new label intended for LA's singer/songwriters called PACIFIC RECORDS in the early 1970's, Alan O'Day was the first artist they signed to the label. He stayed with Warner Brothers until the early 80's. For O'Day's first outing Warner got another one time staff-songwriter turned full blown production wiz Steve Barri to produce O'Day's "Appetizers" album. This was a great pairing. It yielded a minimalist pop style recording that was simultaneously personal yet very commercial.

Alan got his own 15 minutes of fame when "Undercover Angel" from "Appetizers" went to #1 in 1977. A pretty good start for the fledgling label and their first artist. Far from a true one-hit-wonder Mr. O'Day penned scores of songs for top acts like the Righteous Brothers (Rock & Roll Heaven), Helen Reddy (Angie Baby), Cher (Train Of Thought), Johnny Mathis, Three Dog Night, Dusty Springfield, Paul Anka, The Fifth Dimension, John Kay and a string of other artists.

After his solo vocalist fame faded he didn't leave the business like many in the same boat had done. In the 1980's he co-wrote over 100 original songs with longtime co-composer Janis Liebhart for the TV series "Muppet Babies" which was a Jim Henson project. "Muppet Babies" became his full time straight job. After that wrapped the two continued to work together for National Geographic on the soundtrack for all the "Really Wild Animals" episodes plus the two eventually also did some of the video production for the long running Nat Geo series.

He never totally abandoned writing music even after his cancer diagnosis which came during this past holiday season. His last solo album was released in 2008, but he left behind some unfinished business as most in this business will and I'm sure an effort will be make to compile some of it. His "Appetizers" album was re-released as a CD just last year and is recommended if you are into 70's Minimalist Pop or enjoy Steve Barri's handiwork.

I interviewed Alan O'Day in 1977 while "Undercover Angel" was rising at a radio programming guru meeting in Nashville. He would move to Nashville shortly after this interview for a few years and then moved back to LA. I found O'Day very sharp, very alert and surprisingly friendly for someone with a rising single in those days. He was not in a hurry and talked till I ran out of things to say. While about everyone else around him was stoned Alan seemed totally with it compared to some other interview subjects of mine. I didn't know about the number one songs he'd written before his solo album at that time. But I did know a lot about Steve Barri so we talked about Barri a great deal. Getting to know Alan O'Day was a trip. He was all over the place in the interview. Also in music he could jump from one genre to another in a heartbeat. That is something not easily done in case you haven't tried it. He did light bouncy things, he did dark twisted things, he did kid's songs, he did mental illness songs, he did tunes about sexual assault and giraffes and going to the carnival and substance abuse. The list of what he didn't write songs about is shorter than what he did write about. Pop "STORY" songs were his specialty, but not all he did. As a music programmer I always looked for "story" songs because they made for good radio. He pretty much wrote what he saw going on around him for his own original songs and in LA what he saw wasn't always pretty.

It seems he never took any setback seriously but would instead write a song about it. Two RIAA Gold Records back when "gold" meant 1,000,000 units sold, one Emmy nom, one Parent's Choice win and one Japanese Gold Disc award came his way for writing about things that just popped into his head based on happenings around him. He had a gift for visualization and what-ifs. You see a man getting on a bus, but Alan O'Day sees a man getting on a bus going to the airport and could visualize the why of it and what happened when he got to his ultimate destination. That is what a good songwriter can do a mediocre songwriter can not.

While Alan O'Day became one of the very few artists with a #1 single who also wrote other #1 hits for other artists, one of his closest friends also did pretty well in the category of firsts. Diane Warren became the first songwriter in the history of Billboard to have seven hits, all by different artists, on the Billboard singles chart simultaneously. Upon hearing of Alan O'Day's death the notoriously reclusive Diane "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" Warren posted the following tribute: "My dear dear friend and mentor Alan O'Day has passed away. 'If you believe in forever, then life is just a one night stand. If there's a rock and roll Heaven, well you know they've got one hell of a band.' (From Alan's song Rock And roll Heaven). Well the band just got better. Rest in Peace my friend."


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Post subject: Re: Alan "Undercover Angel" O'Day Gone!
Posted: Sun May 19, 2013 4:45 pm
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Another good one gone.

:cry:

RIP, Alan.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Alan "Undercover Angel" O'Day Gone!
Posted: Sun May 19, 2013 5:25 pm
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Well said Dave...


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Post subject: Re: Alan "Undercover Angel" O'Day Gone!
Posted: Sun May 19, 2013 9:36 pm
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That's sad-to loose another musician again in such a short time.Although I must admit that I never liked "Undercover Angel" at all-in fact quite the opposite,his other songs more than made up for it.

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Post subject: Re: Alan "Undercover Angel" O'Day Gone!
Posted: Mon May 20, 2013 7:11 am
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Thanks,Brother Dave


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Post subject: Re: Alan "Undercover Angel" O'Day Gone!
Posted: Mon May 20, 2013 9:09 am
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Brother Dave - Thanks for the great summary!

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Post subject: Re: Alan "Undercover Angel" O'Day Gone!
Posted: Mon May 20, 2013 12:12 pm
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Aw man :(

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Post subject: Re: Alan "Undercover Angel" O'Day Gone!
Posted: Tue May 21, 2013 12:09 pm
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guitslinger wrote:
.... I must admit that I never liked "Undercover Angel" at all-in fact quite the opposite...


I didn't care for it either by the 3,000th time I had to play that dang thing. It and the album do stand out as a good example of Minimalist Pop, which was a Steve Barri forte that sold a lot of records to lots of 16 year olds. I liked the formula as it showcased the performer as a person and the lyrical content better than multi-layered Power Pop which was pretty much dead by then. Music is an evolution and it is always changing. "Appetizers" has held up extremely well as a whole, but I skip over that one song myself.


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Post subject: Re: Alan "Undercover Angel" O'Day Gone!
Posted: Tue May 21, 2013 12:57 pm
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brotherdave wrote:
I didn't care for it either by the 3,000th time I had to play that dang thing.


+1

Definitely an "ear worm", contemporarily similar to "The Pina Colada Song" and "Afternoon Delight". All were hallmark examples of the polyester era of mid/late '70s pop.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Alan "Undercover Angel" O'Day Gone!
Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 5:07 am
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Egads. "Afternoon Delight." "Escape."

I'd say "Escape" (The Pina Colada Song) is also minimalist pop. I bet Rupert Holmes (real name DAVID GOLDSTEIN) got pretty tired of people offering him Pina Coladas before that was over.

"Afternoon Delight" was probably one of the fastest burn-out records ever for me. Heard it the first time, "WOW." Heard it the second time "Ehh." By the third time you were sick of it. Too manipulative. Never got one single request for it in 35 years as a DJ. Not one.

Holmes also worked on THE CUFF LINKS project who had a huge Power Pop hit called, "TRACY" with Ron Dante on lead vocal. Holmes sang BG vocals and played piano on "Tracy." That was a good record and I'm still not tired of it. I'm a closet Ron Dante fan I guess. Also a fan of Johnny Maestro. Both were good voices.


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Post subject: Re: Alan "Undercover Angel" O'Day Gone!
Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 3:55 am
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brotherdave wrote:
"Afternoon Delight" was probably one of the fastest burn-out records ever for me. Heard it the first time, "WOW." Heard it the second time "Ehh." By the third time you were sick of it. Too manipulative. Never got one single request for it in 35 years as a DJ. Not one.


+1

Sonic saccharine for sure!

:lol:

Arjay

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