Undercover Angel (song)

"Undercover Angel"
Single by Alan O'Day
from the album Appetizers
B-side	Just You
Released	February 1977
Format	45
Genre	Pop rock
Length	4:12 (album version) 3:40 (single version)
Label	Pacific
Writer(s)	Alan O'Day
Producer(s)	Steve Barri

"Undercover Angel" was a hit single for singer/songwriter Alan O'Day. Certified gold, it reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (one of 1977's ten biggest hits)^[1] and #9 on the Australian Singles Chart.

Background

In 1977, Warner Bros. Music decided to form a special label for their composers who also performed. O'Day was the first artist signed, and his first release was "Undercover Angel." The original vinyl pressing was released with the B-side "Just You".

The song, which O'Day described as a "nocturnal novelette", was released without fanfare in February 1977. Within a few months, it had reached #1 in the U.S., even without an album to support it. O'Day said of the experience, "It's wonderful when you find out what feels right, and then it also feels right to other people. That's a songwriter's dream."^[2]

Backup vocals are provided by Carol Parks.

Storyline

The song begins with a man commiserating his loneliness, when a woman suddenly appears in his bed, and encourages him to make love to her. The rest of the song describes his feelings about her, then he discovers she must leave him, and he is saddened. She tells him to "go find the right one, love her and then, when you look into her eyes you'll see me again."

He then explains that was his story, as apparently he has been singing this song to a woman whom he is trying to seduce, and how he wants to look in her eyes to see if she is the reincarnation of the angel he found.

In his 1980 book "Rock, Practical Help for Those Who Listen to the Words and Don't like What They Hear," Bob Larson insisted that the song was actually satanic, and was all about a man having sex with a demon.

References

External links

• Alan O'Day's official website
• Listen to "Undercover Angel" (audio)