Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Heaven adds to its chorus

In the last 24 hours, we've lost two musical talents from a bygone era.

Alan O'Day is better known as a songwriter who created hits for Bobby Sherman, Helen Reddy, Cher, & the Righteous Brothers, among others, before hitting the charts himself in 1977 with "Undercover Angel", which was later used in the first "Charlie's Angels" feature film (appropriate, no?). O'Day succumbed to cancer at 72.

While there is no official video available of "Undercover Angel", we will have to make do with this from kouj1328:



Ray Manzarek was the keyboard player in The Doors, and was still playing periodically as late as last year. Manzarek passed away on Monday at 74. Following is a 1968 concert clip of the band performing "Light My Fire", which features an organ solo by Manzarek:



We'll close with a little appropriate number, the Righteous Brothers' final hit, "Rock & Roll Heaven", written by Alan O'Day in 1974, with the following video culled from a 1981 concert.



Rest in peace, Alan & Ray.

2 comments:

magicdog said...

I can only imagine how a rewrite of "Rock & Roll Heaven" would go when one thinks of all the music legends who have since passed.



hobbyfan said...

Yeah, since a lot of major names have passed since 1974. Elvis, Michael Jackson, James Brown.......