Earth Angel

For the "Married... with Children" episode, see Earth Angel (Married... with Children episode).

"Earth Angel"
Song

"Earth Angel (Will You Be Mine)" is an American Doo Wop song, originally released by The Penguins in 1954 on the Dootone label (Dootone 348), as the B-side to "Hey Señorita". The song became a major hit for The Crew-Cuts in 1955, reaching the Billboard charts on January 29, 1955. It peaked at #3 on the Disk Jockey chart, #8 on the Best Seller and #8 on the Juke Box chart.

The song was originally recorded as a demo at Ted Brinson's garage studio in South Los Angeles in October 1954, with producer Dootsie Williams. "Earth Angel" quickly outstripped its A-side in popularity, and reached number one on the Billboard R&B chart for three weeks in early 1955, and number eight on the pop chart. Covered many times since, the love song would prove to be the only Top 40 hit from the group.

The version of "Earth Angel" recorded by The Penguins ranked #151 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 2004, it was one of 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry. The Penguins' rendition is considered by many to be "the granddaddy of rock n' roll" since it was one of the first records which could be described as rock and roll to hit the national pop charts.

Authorship

The song was originally credited to The Penguins' baritone singer Curtis Williams, but, after a legal dispute in 1956, both Jesse Belvin and Gaynel Hodge, at the time a member of another Los Angeles vocal group, The Turks, were added as co-writers.

One source states that ""Earth Angel" was a pastiche of everything that was floating around Los Angeles". According to one of the most reputable sources, it was started by Belvin, and then evolved through various differently titled songs recorded by Hodge and Williams. In turn they were influenced by "Dream Girl", Belvin's #2 R&B hit as one half of Jesse and Marvin, which contained many of the same vocal inflections used in "Earth Angel". The "Will you be mine?" hook was borrowed from the #9 R&B hit of the same name by the Swallows. A very similar song, in terms of its piano introduction and chord progression, is "I Know" recorded in 1953 by The Hollywood Flames, a group in which Hodge and Williams were both members for a time. The chord changes, known as the 50s progression, are also similar to the Rodgers and Hart song, "Blue Moon", which was popular with many doo-wop groups. The coda of Earth Angel, with the repeatedly harmonized word "You-oo... you-oo... you-oo... you-oo," had previously been heard in The Dominoes' #5 R&B cover of "These Foolish Things (Remind Me Of You)"

Cover versions

• The song became a major hit for The Crew-Cuts in 1955. Number 70529 on the Mercury Records catalog, it reached the Billboard charts on January 29, 1955. It peaked at #3 on the Disk Jockey chart, #8 on the Best Seller and #8 on the Juke Box chart. The flip side, "Ko Ko Mo (I Love You So)," also charted.
• At the same time, Gloria Mann's version reaching #18.
• Johnny Tillotson's 1960 version reached #57.
• The Crests recorded a version for their 1960 album: The Crests Sing All Biggies
• Bobby Vinton covered a version in 1963
• The Vogues recorded a version that reached #42 in 1969.
• New Edition reached #21 with a 1986 version.
• Bella Morte released a cover of Earth Angel on their newest album Bleed The Grey Sky Black (released October 10, 2006 under Metropolis Records), as well as a video for the song featuring dancing zombies.
• Death Cab for Cutie recorded a version for Stubbs the Zombie: The Soundtrack.
• Tiny Tim also covered this song implementing his famed falsetto toward the end.
• blink-182's Tom Delonge covered this song during The 2002 Pop Disaster Tour.
• Slapstick, a defunct ska-punk band, covered this song which is on their self titled discography.
• Ghoti Hook covered this song on their album, Songs We Didn't Write.
• Elvis Presley covered this song in Germany in a now rare track. Released on the 1984 album A Golden Celebration.
• Aaron Neville covered this song on his album Orchid In the Storm released February 18th, 2003.
• Hardly Seen, a Brooklyn band, recorded a cover of this song.
• The Hong Kong Filth does this song live at most of their shows
• The Icelandic experimental group Sometime recorded a cover of this song for their 2007 release "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious".
• Coldplay frontman Chris Martin performed a cover of "Earth Angel" at the Bridge School Benefit 2009.
• The band J.Rad from Long Island, NY does a metal version of this song.
• Green Day often includes the song in a live medley which begins with their original song "King For A Day", morphing into The Isley Brothers' "Shout" and breaks into a smaller medley including, but not limited to, "Earth Angel," The Jackson 5's "I'll Be There," and Ben E. King's "Stand by Me", then back into "Shout."
• Musician Erick Richardson released a cover of Earth Angel on his EP album Singing In the Shower EP [1] (released February 14, 2010).
• Not generally known, but Connie Francis also recorded Earth Angel in 1959.

Cultural references

• In Back to the Future, Marvin Berry and the Starlighters played the song during the "Enchantment Under the Sea" high-school dance. Due to the time-travelling plot of the films, this scene was "replayed" in Back to the Future Part II.
• A scene from the Family Guy season finale "Meet the Quagmires", which directly parodied the dance from Back to the Future, also featured the song and was followed, instead of Johnny B. Goode, by Never Gonna Give You Up. In the episode, "Earth Angel" is sung by Luke Adams.
• In the musical, "Jersey Boys", it was sung by the actor playing Tommy DeVito.
• In Superman III, the song was played in the high-school reunion scene that Clark Kent and Lana Lang dance to.
• In the 1998 mini-series The Temptations, the actors portraying The Distants (a predecessor of The Temptations) perform "Earth Angel" a capella.
• In the Smallville episode "Relic", set in the 60's, the song can be heard in a scene between Jor-El and Louise.
• In the Stephen King novel It, in the lengthy flashback to the main characters' lives during the 1950s, Ben Hanscomb hears the song in his head every time he sees his crush, Beverly.
• In one of the final scenes of the play "Paradise Park" by Charles Mee, much of the cast sings Earth Angel in its entirety.
• In the Erfworld summer update 015, the Transylvitians sing, among others, a song called "Erf Angel".