"Angel" is a song written and recorded by Jimi Hendrix, first released in February 1971 on the posthumous LP The Cry of Love. In April it was released as a single, which failed to chart. In the US the single was backed with "Freedom" and in the UK with "Night Bird Flying".
The song was included on 1997's South Saturn Delta, a compilation of Hendrix demos, unfinished tracks and alternate mixes, as well as the same year's First Rays of the New Rising Sun, which attempted to reconstruct what Hendrix's unfinished fourth album might have sounded like had he lived to complete it.
In 1972, Rod Stewart covered "Angel" on his album Never a Dull Moment. This version can also be heard in the film Charlie's Angels, which was released in the year 2000, but is not included in the film's soundtrack album. In the UK, it reached no. 4 as a double A-side with "What's Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made a Loser Out of Me).
Vinegar Joe covered the song on their second album Rock 'n' Roll Gypsies released in 1972.
This song was also recorded by singer/songwriter and harpist Dee Carstensen in her 1995 studio album release Regarding The Soul. The album The Gil Evans Orchestra Play the Music of Jimi Hendrix features "Angel" rendered heavy on saxophone. The Jeff Healey Band also recorded Angel on their 1995 album Cover To Cover.
Some of the song's lyrics were recited at Hendrix's funeral.
Famous quotes containing the words angel and/or hendrix:
“France, indeed! whose Catholic millions still worship Mary Queen of Heaven; and for ten generations refused cap and knee to many angel Maries, rightful Queens of France.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Blues is easy to play, but hard to feel.”
—Jimi Hendrix (1942–1970)