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Angie (song)

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For the Davey Graham song, see Anji (instrumental).

"Angie"
Song
B-side"Silver Train"

"Angie" is a song by the rock band The Rolling Stones, featured on their 1973 album Goats Head Soup.

Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and recorded in November and December 1972, "Angie" is an acoustic-guitar-driven ballad which tells of the end of a romance. The song's distinctive piano accompaniment was played by Nicky Hopkins, a Rolling Stones recording-session regular. The strings on the piece (as well as on another song, "Winter") were arranged by Nicky Harrison.[2] An unusual feature of the original recording is that singer Mick Jagger's vocal guide track (made before the final vocals were performed) is faintly audible throughout the song (an effect sometimes called a "ghost vocal").[3]

Released as a single in August 1973, "Angie" went straight to the top of the US Billboard Hot 100 and reached No. 5 on the UK singles chart. The song was also a No. 1 hit in both Canada and Australia for five weeks each and topped the charts in many countries throughout Europe and the rest of the world.

Because of the song's length, some radio stations made edits to shorten it to 3 minutes, omitting the longer coda and the second instrumental section of the song.

There was speculation that the song was about David Bowie's first wife Angela, or the actress Angie Dickinson, or Keith Richards' newborn daughter, Dandelion Angela.[4] Richards, who wrote almost all the music and lyrics for the song, claimed in his autobiography that the name Angie was a pseudonym for heroin, and that the song was about his attempt to quit using it while detoxing in Switzerland.[citation needed]

The Rolling Stones have frequently performed the song in concert; it was included in set lists on their 1973, 1975, and 1976 tours, and they have performed it on every tour since their 1982 European tour.[5] Concert renditions were released on the albums Stripped and Live Licks.

In the documentary Protagonist, the former German terrorist Hans-Joachim Klein remarks that the song inspired him to adopt "Angie" as the moniker he used during his militant activities in the 1970s.[6] In 2005, the German political party CDU used the song in its election campaign for Angela Merkel, although the Rolling Stones had not given them permission to do so.[7]

Music video

Two music videos were shot to promote the song.

Chart performance

Chart (1972/1973) Peak
position
Australian Singles Chart 1
Austrian Singles Chart 8
Canadian Singles Chart 1
Danish Singles Chart 4
Finnish Singles Chart 16
German Single Chart 2
Irish Singles Chart 9
Dutch Top 40 1
Norwegian Singles Chart 1
Swiss Singles Chart 1
UK Singles Chart 5
US Billboard Hot 100 1

Covers

  • Womack & Womack covered the song on their 1983 debut album Love Wars
  • The Chilean rock band La Ley covered the song on their 1990 debut album, Doble Opuesto
  • Tori Amos covered the song on her 1992 EP Crucify; this cover has also since been included in other releases and compilations
  • The Jamaican roots reggae singer Horace Andy, along with Ashley Beedle, covered the song in the Inspiration Information series
  • Stereophonics covered the song, releasing it as the B-side of their 1999 single "Hurry Up and Wait"
  • Uwe Schmidt covered the song in 1998 under his moniker lb on Pop Artificielle (the singing was actually produced by voice-synthesizer software)
  • The Irish rock band Aslan closed their 1999 concert album Made in Dublin: Live from Vicar Street with a rendition of the song
  • Sammy Kershaw covered the song in 2001 on Stone Country: Country Artists Perform the Songs of the Rolling Stones
  • Guns N' Roses performed an instrumental piano version of the song in 2006 and 2007 as an intro to "The Blues/Street of Dreams" during their Chinese Democracy Tour
  • Aaron Kelly sang the song during the Top 12 week on Season 9 of American Idol
  • The guitarist Laurence Juber recorded a solo acoustic guitar instrumental version dedicated to Nicky Hopkins on his 2008 album "Pop Goes Guitar"
  • The Portuguese rock band UHF covered Angie and released it as a single in 1999
  • The German rock band J.B.O. covered Angie on their 1997 album "Laut!"
  • The Argentine musician Pedro Aznar covered the song on his 2008 double-disc album Quebrado
  • The American neo-psychedelic band MGMT covered "Angie" during some of their live performances in 2012

References

  1. ^ "Certified Awards Search". BPI. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
  2. ^ "Nick Harrison Biography"
  3. ^ Janovitz, Bill. "Angie". Retrieved 1 September 2009.
  4. ^ McPherson, Ian. "Track Talk: Angie". Archived from the original on 9 February 2009. Retrieved 15 February 2009. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ Zentgraf, Nico. "The Complete Works of the Rolling Stones 1962–2008". Archived from the original on 5 January 2009. Retrieved 1 January 2009. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ Protagonist, 2007
  7. ^ "Stones' "Angie" in German poll row – 22 August 2005". BBC.co.uk. Retrieved 14 January 2012.
Preceded by US Billboard Hot 100 number one single
20 October 1973 (one week) 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Canadian RPM 100 number-one single
13 October 1973 (five weeks) 		Succeeded by
"Could You Ever Love Me Again" by Gary and Dave
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