Angie Baby – Helen Reddy

Forget Jamie and his Magic Torch, this is all about Angie and her Magic Radio…

This song was released in 1974, and to me it really sums up that sort of childhood period of listening to the radio late at night under the covers. I used to have a Pepsi can portable radio, and although I didn’t keep boys inside it (nice trick, Angie) I did like to listen to it when the room was lit only by moonlight.

Angie Baby is a narrative about a girl that is ‘touched’ – and that is the crucial point of this song, that the girl in question is perhaps a bit magical, a bit gifted in the strange sense of the word. Originally the song-writer, Alan O’Day, used the word ‘slow', which would have given the song a completely different feel. Making the girl in question a bit otherworldly adds an extra layer of interest and complexity to the lyrics.

This song caused a lot of speculation about the meaning when it first came out – everyone apparently wanted a detailed explanation of what happened to the boy in the song. Surely it was obvious – Angie put him in her special radio and brought him out to play on occasions – who needs Ann Summers? So then of course Women’s Lib loved it, although that could have been more because of the nature of some of Helen Reddy’s other songs.

Helen’s vocals suit this song perfectly; she has a lovely twang to her voice that softens the delivery, yet pronunciation is crystal clear. And the melody – there is a lounge-band atmosphere with this song that I really like; I can almost imagine the instrumental version being softly played in an expensive 1970s cocktail lounge, full of women in sequin dresses and men in wide-lapel suits, clinking glasses amidst a riot of orange / brown décor.

And to think this could have been recorded by Cher…

More info here, and a rather delightful video set to this song below.



Postscript

I was very sad to hear that Alan O'Day died in May 2013, and feel very blessed that he took time to comment on this blog post. I especially love how he says below that 'Angie' would have approved of my interpretation - that is such a special gift and one I will always treasure. Thank you, Alan. x

I was recently (October 2013) emailed by James Collins, one half of the band Wahl Collins, who, with Alan's blessing, recorded a cover version of Angie Baby. It's really good - go check out their YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyrrOuBnFc4.