Earth Angel
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- For the "Married... with Children" episode, see Earth Angel (Married... with Children episode).
"Earth Angel (Will You Be Mine)" is an American pop song, originally released by The Penguins in 1954 on the Dootone label (Dootone 348), as the B-side to "Hey Señorita".
Both songs were originally recorded, as demo recordings, at Ted Brinson's garage studio in South Los Angeles in October 1954, with producer Dootsie Williams[1][2]. "Earth Angel" quickly outstripped the A-side in popularity, and reached #1 on the Billboard R&B chart for three weeks in early 1955, and #8 on the pop chart. Covered many times since, the love song would prove to be the only Top 40 hit from the group.
"Earth Angel" ranked 151st 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 grandaddy of rock n' roll"[citation needed] since it was one of the first records which could be described as rock and roll to hit the national pop charts.
The UK edition of "Earth Angel" (on London Records) sold very few copies, and hence enjoys legendary status among record collectors as an extremely rare and valuable record[citation needed].
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[edit] Authorship
Who wrote the song is up for some debate. It 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[3] states that ""Earth Angel" was a pastiche of everything that was floating around Los Angeles". According to one of the most reputable sources[1], 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[1]. 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 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)"[3].
[edit] 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 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.
- Slapstick covered this song which you can find on their self titled discography.
- Ghoti Hook covered this song on their album, Songs We Didn't Write.
- Hardly Seen, a Brooklyn band, recorded a cover of this song.
- The Icelandic experimental group Sometime recorded a cover of this song for their 2007 release "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious".
[edit] 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.
- 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 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.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Dawson, Jim; & Propes, Steve (1992). What was the first rock ’n’ roll record?. Faber & Faber. ISBN 0-571-12939-0
- ^ The Doo-Wop Society of Southern California: Doo-Wop Links
- ^ a b The Doo-Wop Society of Southern California: Doo-Wop Links
