The Angel Baby Song

The Angel Baby song was written by 14 year old Rosie Hamlin and became a Top Five Doo-Wop hit back in 1960 after the song was originally played in a local Dept Store.

Rosie had scribbled the Angel Baby Song on the back of her notebook as a sophomore at Mission Bay High School in San Diego. It started out as a poem for the very first boyfriend she ever had and was written right before she joined the Originals.

Rosie's mother bought her a piano and her Aunt began teaching her some chords.  As she continued to learn on the piano and sing a family friend would bring over local musicians for jam sessions.

Rosie had already written Angel Baby when she was fourteen and after many sessions together the group decided to record the song when Rosie was just fifteen. 

It was a hot summer day when the group got into a car and headed out to San Marcos, California, to a rented recording studio described as somewhere in the middle of no-where.

The original group consisted of David Ponci and Noah Tafolla on Guitar and Tony Gomez on Bass.  Carl Von Goodat later joined on Drums and Alfred Barrett on Sax.

When they arrived what appeared to be an old barn was actually an abandoned airplane hangar owned by a retired airplane mechanic.

The recording studio was a corner of the hangar surrounded by airplane parts, but it did have a set of drums and a piano in that corner.

To make matters worse the sax player, Alfred Barrett, said he would join them later but failed to show because he had to mow the lawn.

Remember, they were just teens at the time, so some had chores to do before going anywhere. They were in trouble without a sax player but Noah had an idea. 

He had played a little Sax and decided to teach Tony Gomez the Sax part so the Bass player is actually playing the Sax on the original recording. Now back to the Recording Studio.

When the record was finished the group ran into trouble landing a record deal and couldn't get an appointment with any of the recording labels, but they didn't give up.

They took their master recording to Kresge's Department Store in San Diego and asked the Manager to play the song in one of the listening booths of the music department. They wanted it piped into the store so the teens shopping for records could hear it also. 

They suggested to the Manager that if the teens liked the song maybe they could sell it in the store. The Manager agreed and allowed them to play the song throughout the store.

After her days with Highland Records, Jackie Wilson asked Rosie to come to New York, along with guitarist Noah Tafolla, where they recorded "Lonely Blue Nights" for the Brunswick label.

Soon after they began opening for Jackie Wilson at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater for six shows daily.  The show included Little Anthony and the Imperials, The Marcells, Benny King, The Isley Brothers, Del Shannon, Bobby Vee and Bobby Rydel among others.

Rosie has worked with other great entertainers including Fats Domino, Chuck Berry and Little Richard.  She opened for the "Rolling Stones" when they first came to the US.

John Lennon recorded the Angel Baby Song and made mention that little Rosie was one of his favorite American Artists. 

This Angel Baby song made it to #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1960. It remained on the charts for twelve weeks.

For someone that had just a single hit song "Angel Baby", Rosie Hamlin has proved that she should be remembered for more than that one hit single.

Her cover versions of "A Thousand Stars", The One That Really Loves You and Your No Good are superb covers, and her original 'Lonely Blue Nights' deserved to be a hit song.

Hamlin and Tafolla married and had two children together.

In 2002, Hamlin performed this "Angel Baby" video on a PBS-TV program, Red White & Rock.

Please note that here she is performing this classic with a full orchestra of professional musicians. In 1960 she recorded this in a converted airplane hanger with her teenage friends.

Forty two years later, no flat notes, perfect pitch all the way through the song. A tribute to her lasting talent.

Sadly, Rosie Hamlin died on March 30, 2017. She was 71.