# Warren Zevon Dead at 56 **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 8, 2003, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-zevon-dead-at-56/200270 "2003-09-08T11:33:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2003, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-zevon-dead-at-56/200270/81 "2003-09-20T13:44:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Quasimodem \* > I really thought O’Day’s claim to fame was _Undercover Angel_! I’ll be going to the website ASAP, thanks! Major hijack, but at least we’re still on a music topic: IIRC, Alan O’Day had two hits as a recording artist: _Angie Baby_ and _Undercover Angel._ But before those, he was quite a success as a songwriter. A good example is his song _Easy Evil_, which was recorded by, at one count, 27 major artists. None of the recordings did much on the charts, so it looked like musicians loved the song but the public didn’t. It’s not uncommon for artists to “cover” big hits, but that many recordings of a non-hit is quite unusual, and says something about the song & songwriter. _Rock and Roll Heaven_ was written by Alan O’Day and Johnny Stevenson. One story is Stevenson had a raw version, his publisher shopped it around to other professional writers for assistance and O’Day came up with the best finished product. How much he added to it I don’t know. When I worked with Alan in the 70’s, he often added or revised verses as rock artists died. I don’t know of any complete list of all the revisions (that site I linked to only has one version). It would be great to put them all together, but I have lost track of Alan over the years. Last I heard he was working with Miss Piggy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-zevon-dead-at-56/200270.md?page=4)