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 the Righteous Brothers' No. 3 Gold hit "Rock and Roll Heaven". 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 Tyler the Creator interpolated in "Gone, Gone/Thank You"). Life and career Early years 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 stated that he remembered 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 classmates on the ukulele. At Coachella Valley Union High School, after participating in a band called The Imperials, he started his own rock'n'roll band, The Shoves with heavy influences from Jerry Lee Lewis, Ray Charles, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, and Fats Domino, who appeared on KABC-TV/Los Angeles' Hub Talent Show on August 25, 1958. A third band, The Renés (O'Day, Oscar Arias, Eddie Arias, Ernie Gurrola, Sal Velasquez, Johnny Alvarez & Don Duarte) played Latin and Mexican standards mixed with rock and roll tunes and gave him the opportunity to write his own songs. In 1958, R&B pioneer Johnny Otis auditioned the Renés after an auditioning singer they were backing didn't pass muster. Impressed with their playing and the O'Day compositions, 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 most of the members of the Renés were minors. In 1961, he found work via a friend from high school, Arch Hall