Rosie & The Originals – Angel Baby

This was one of John Lennon’s favorite songs throughout his life. Rosie and the Originals were also mentioned by Led Zeppelin on liner notes after the song Dy’er Mak’er…“Whatever happened to Rosie and the Originals?” 

Rosie Hamlin wrote “Angel Baby,” her and the Originals’ lone hit, when she was just 14, with her first boyfriend and the Penguins’ “Earth Angel” serving as her primary inspiration. After penning the song over a couple hours in the afternoon, Hamlin and some instrument-playing San Diego friends laid down the first version of the track.

Rosie Hamlin

They had trouble landing a record deal. No appointments with any of the labels. They eventually found a private studio and recorded the song themselves…all teenagers. After that, they took one of their 45’s to Kresge’s Department Store in San Diego. They had listening booths in their music section where you could preview records before you bought them. Rosie asked the manager to play their record and see if he could sell it in his store.

A distributor from Highland Records heard “Angel Baby” and, without officially signing the group to a record contract, took control of the single’s master take and gave songwriting credit to the Originals’ eldest member. The single eventually found its way to famed DJ Alan Freed, who played “Angel Baby” numerous times a day in November 1960; two months later, the single peaked at Number Five on the Hot 100.

However, Hamlin parted ways with Highland after a legal battle over the song’s authorship and ownership. After disbanding the Originals, Hamlin recorded an album with her guitarist husband Noah Tafolla before leaving the music industry by 1963.

After her divorce, a little over 3 years later, she did venture into music again but never had any other hits and played live some. She made a Spanish version of this song in 2002.

It’s been covered many times but Rosie’s favorite cover version was…John Lennon’s that he recorded for his Rock and Roll album released in 1975 but the song didn’t end up being released until 1986. John’s voice can be heard saying: “This is one of my all-time favorite songs… My love to Rosie wherever she may be.”

Rosie and the Originals never received a penny from “Angel Baby,” nor any of the other Highland recordings until September 1994, when a financial settlement was reached and the masters of their recordings were returned to them. Rosie said: “It looks like that song will be around longer than I will.”

And it is …Rosie passed away in 2017 at the age of 71.

Angel Baby

It’s just like heaven being here with you
You’re like an angel, too good to be true
But after all, I love you, I do
Angel baby, my angel baby

When you are near me, my heart skips a beat
I can hardly stand on my own two feet
Because I love you, I love you, I do
Angel baby, my angel baby

Oh, I love you, oh I do
No one could love you like I do
Ooh, ooh

Please, never leave me blue and alone
If you ever go, I’m sure you’ll come back home
Because I love you, I love you, I do
Angel baby, my angel baby

It’s just like heaven being here with you dear
I could never stay the way without you near
Because I love you, I love you, I do
Angel baby, my angel baby

Oh, I love you, oh, I do
No one could love you like I do
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

29 thoughts on “Rosie & The Originals – Angel Baby”

    1. Thanks Jim…I’ve been wanting to post this for years…it’s been in my drafts for at least 3 years. When I was going to post it…Hanspostcard posted it and I held back for a while…a long while.

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  2. Nice song. I’ve heard it before yet somehow even as I played it, it kept morphing into Linda Ronstadt’s song (‘Ooh baby baby’?) As an aside, am I looking at the timeline right? She was 14? She looks dangerously mature for that age, and then she was divorced three years later… so she’d be 17?

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  5. Sometimes the songs that mark you deepest hit you at your most impressionable, and the song doesn’t have to be a work of art, it just grabs your heart. (I just read that back, truely unintentional rhyme there.) To me the voice is almost shrill but the naivety comes through.
    That Lennon ‘Rock’n’Roll’ is far better than it could have been, at the tail end of his partying phase.

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    1. You have rhyming in your soul!
      I do like the Lennon Rock and Roll album. It’s my sons favorite of him. I can’t figure that out but I go with it.
      Sorry in advance when you get to…oh you will see.

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  8. I like “Angel Baby”. To me it has a classic early ’60s sound. When I was in my young teens, that’s what I would have called an “oldie”. Of course, I guess the “oldie” concept is all relative. From today’s perspective, you could consider ’80s and ’90s songs as oldies.

    I listened to that Lennon “Menlove Ave” album before, so must have heard his rendition of the song. But it’s been a long that I did so really cannot remember it.

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    1. In the 80s I listened to oldies as well from the 50s-70s…now yea…the 80s and 90s are oldies…jeez…we are getting old ourselves.
      Those English guys really liked this song.

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    2. “Oldies” is such a weird concept. The 50s were already oldies by the late 60s, with bands like Sha Na Na and Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids. Would we think of 2010 as oldies now? Maybe it’s because rock changed so much in such as short time back then. (Think of how much the Beatles changed over 5 years.) Being an oldie myself, I remember the original of Angel Baby but never heard Lennon’s cover.

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  10. How the F&%k have I not heard this song before!!!!! I can see why Lennon was so enchanted with it.
    Guess what the first song I will wake up the kids with this morning will be??!! It won’t be Lennon’s version, but he did a pretty good job with his sassy and exuberant take.
    The fact that Rosie and the Originals didn’t make money from this makes this song even more alluring. It definitely gives Earth Angel a run for its money or even supersedes it,
    Listening to this is like I have been reacquainted with a lost lover haha

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    1. It is a great song Matt…something else I learned through reading about The Beatles…that is the only way I would have heard it. I’m glad Lennon covered it so more people would know about it.

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      1. I think we played ‘Angel Baby’ only 7 times yesterday haha. My daughter was singing it to herself at night. I can see how Rosie was inspired by Earth Angel. It’s the sweetest of songs, it really is.
        How you were brought to this song by reading about the Beatles I could say from reading your blog haha.
        Have a great day, friend.

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      2. I’m so you glad you all liked it Matt that makes my day!
        I’m taking a short 10 day break or so…I’ll see you when I get back on November 17th…

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  11. Pingback: Angel Baby (1960) – Rosie & the Originals | Observation Blogger

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