Angie

Story of Song

Most of the ‘The Rolling Stone’s songs at that time were hard and aggressive, except for this rare ballad, and yet it was a huge hit, and their only ballad that reached number 1 in the US. The Rolling Stones have frequently performed the song in concerts and on every tour since their 1982 European tour.

In 2005 German chancellor Angela Merkel appropriated this acoustic song for her Christian Democratic Union Party. “We’re surprised that permission wasn’t requested,” said a Stones spokesman, and added:”If it had been, we would have said no.”

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.

There were speculations that the song was about the actress Angie Dickinson, or Keith Richards’ newborn daughter, Dandelion Angela. Richards who wrote almost all the music and lyrics for this song, and 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 ! Another speculation is that Richards’ girlfriend Anita Pallenberg inspired this song. Keith wrote in his 2010 autobiography ‘Life’:”While I was in the Vevey drug clinic (March-April 1972), Anita was down the road having our daughter, Angela. Once I came out of the usual trauma, I had a guitar with me and I wrote ‘Angie’ in an afternoon, sitting in bed, because I could finally move my fingers and put them in the right place again, and I didn’t feel like I had to s–t the bed or climb the walls or feel manic anymore. I just went, ‘Angie, Angie.’ It was not about any particular person; it was a name, like oh, Diana. I didn’t know Angela was going to be called Angela when I wrote ‘Angie.’ In those days you didn’t know what sex the thing was going to be until it popped out.”
Others claim that “Angie” in the song is Angela, David Bowie’ ex-wife. Giving credibility to that claim is the former Mrs. Bowie herself. According to her, after returning home from a trip, she walked into her bedroom to find Bowie and Jagger in bed together. Although they both weren’t in action at the time, they did just happen to be nude, and probably high and of course very skinny to the point of borderline anorexia. So the song you’ve probably dedicated to your ex-girlfriend is about the heartbreak someone else felt upon finding out you boned David Bowie. Jagger and Bowie deny the incident ever happened; Bowie’s wife confirms that this is the true story and has for the most part stood by it. After Angela divorced Bowie, she wrote a book and made a famous appearance on the Joan Rivers Show where she reiterated her belief that Jagger and Bowie had indeed been having sex shortly before she walked in. David Bowie and Mick Jagger nude and in bed together was the inspiration for the song ‘Angie’.

Release date

Angie was released on August 20, 1973 but initially recorded in November and December 1972

Songwriter/s

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards

Label

Rolling Stones

Chart Rankings

US – 1

UK – 5

GERMANY  – 2

The song was successful in Ireland first where it reached number 2 on the Irish singles chart in 2013. The video went viral and it was a big hit in the US and reached number 2 on the Billboard hot 100 in December 2014 and January 2015  for 3 consecutive weeks. It was also number 2 in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Artist’s age on release date

The Rolling Stones had been together for 11 years when they released Angie, while Mick Jagger was 30 years of age.

Cover Versions

No official remade has been recorded for Angie so far, except for amateur DJs who did remixes.