‘Angie’ is a song by the English rock band The Rolling Stones, featured on their 1973 album Goats Head Soup. It also served as the lead single on the album, released on 20 August 1973. The song is credited, as most Rolling Stones songs are, to both Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. ‘Angie’ was recorded in November and December 1972 and is an acoustic guitar-driven ballad characterizing the end of a romance.
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. Cash Box said that "Jagger is at his best—slurring words by the dozens to ring out the feeling of every important line." Record World called it a "tender ballad" on which "Mick Jagger's vocal is moving and sensuous." A rare ballad for The Stones, this was the first single released from Goat's Head Soup. It wasn't typical of their sound, since most of the band's material at the time was hard and aggressive. Still, it was a huge hit, and their only ballad that hit #1 in the US. This is one of the few Rolling Stones songs that is acoustic.
The big rumor about this song is that it was written about David Bowie's wife, Angela, who wrote in her autobiography that she once walked in on Bowie and Mick Jagger in bed together - a story Jagger denies. According to the rumor, Jagger wrote this song to appease her, but it was Jagger's bandmate Keith Richards who wrote most of the song. Jagger had this to say about it: "People began to say that song was written about David Bowie's wife but the truth is that Keith wrote the title. He said, 'Angie,' and I think it was to do with his daughter. She's called Angela. And then I just wrote the rest of it."
There was also speculation that Richards' girlfriend Anita Pallenberg inspired this song, but Keith cleared it up in his 2010 autobiography Life, where he wrote: "While I was in the [Vevey drug] clinic (in 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…”
Label – Rolling Stones
Songwriters – Mick Jagger, Keith Richards
Producer – Jimmy Miller
SONG LYRICS
[Verse 1]Angie, Angie
When will those clouds all disappear?
Angie, Angie
Where will it lead us from here?
With no loving in our souls
And no money in our coats
You can't say we're satisfied
But Angie, Angie
You can't say we never tried
Angie, you're beautiful, yeah
But ain't it time we said goodbye?
Angie, I still love you
Remember all those nights we cried?
All the dreams we held so close
Seemed to all go up in smoke
Let me whisper in your ear
Angie, Angie
Where will it lead us from here?
[Verse 2]
Oh, Angie, don't you weep
All your kisses still taste sweet
I hate that sadness in your eyes
But Angie, Angie
Ain't it time we said goodbye? Yeah
[Verse 3]
With no loving in our souls
And no money in our coats
You can't say we're satisfied
But Angie, I still love you, baby
Everywhere I look, I see your eyes
There ain't a woman that comes close to you
Come on, baby, dry your eyes
But Angie, Angie
Ain't it good to be alive?
Angie, Angie
They can't say we never tried