Rosie & The Originals

All Music Guide:

Rosie & the Originals are one of the best-remembered one-shot artists of the early rock era, getting to number five with their 1960 single "Angel Baby." A slow, simple, and primitively recorded and executed doo wop-shaded ballad, it was distinguished from countless other records of the sort by 15-year-old Rosie Hamlin's unnaturally high, thin voice, which got higher-than-high on the periodic wordless "ooh, ooh-oohs" that served as the record's primary hooks.

The single's gotten more notoriety than might be expected considering that the group never had another Top 40 hit. John Lennon cited Rosie as one of his favorite singers in a 1969 interview in Life magazine, and recorded the song in the mid-'70s for his Rock 'n' Roll oldies collection, although that track wasn't issued until the mid-'80s. In an essay in Rock Almanac, Mark Sten even described the song as "generating a robot mantra devoid of embellishment or variation, the perfect underpinning for Rosie's piercing, disembodied-siren vocal. With 'Angel Baby,' rock had regressed as far as it could, some nameless dread loosed within the collective Top 40 mind had run its course and spent itself in a lost mournful wail. 'Angel Baby' was the final moonlit flowering of rock's medieval phase, paean to a purity and innocence on longer possible in the real world."

The band certainly had no thoughts of inviting such intellectual commentary when they formed in San Diego in 1960. Unable to find a recording studio in San Diego, they cut "Angel Baby" in a barn-like building in the farming town of San Marcos, with a radically different B-side, "Give Me Love," with a vocal by Bluford D. Wade. The group had trouble interesting Los Angeles labels in the song (a Hamlin original) until they convinced a department store manager in San Diego to play it. This attracted attention from kids in the store and a record distributor that happened to be there at the time. Through him they got the single "Angel Baby" released on Highland, and at the end of 1960 it shot up the national charts.

Although Rosie & the Originals recorded a few more tracks, they broke up almost immediately after "Angel Baby" made the charts, in a dispute over the terms of a recording contract they were considering signing. In 1961, Jackie Wilson's manager, Nat Tarnopol, got Rosie a contract with Wilson's label, Brunswick. Brunswick did put out a follow-up single, "Lonely Blue Nights," which made number 66, as well as an album and another single, billing the artist solely as Rosie for all the releases. In the meantime Highland put out a couple of Rosie & the Originals 45s with tracks to which they had the rights.

"Angel Baby," however, was one of those accidents of timing and unique material that couldn't be repeated, and none of Rosie's subsequent recordings -- which, like "Angel Baby," were usually simple pop/rock ballads with a doo wop feel -- could recapture the magic. Hamlin did make another single for the Globe label before leaving the music business to raise a family with her husband, Noah Tafolla, who had been leader and lead guitarist of the Originals. She did some tracks with producer Doug Salma in 1969 in a more updated doo wop/girl-group style that remained unreleased until 1999, when the Ace compilation The Best of Rosie & the Originals was issued.

Wikipedia:

Rosie & The Originals were an American 1960s group best known for their single, "Angel Baby." Fronted by lead singer Rosie Hamlin, the group produced two singles (including "Angel Baby") for Highland Records and, like many other artists of the era, ended up in protracted legal battles with their record label over royalties and credits.

Early career

Singer Rosie Hamlin wrote the lyrics for "Angel Baby" as a poem when she was 14 years old, still attending Mission Bay High School in San Diego, California. When she was 15, she and some friends rented a recording studio in San Marcos, California to record the song. The resulting record had a very simplistic sound, and, in fact, was eventually slightly damaged from excessive playing, so the group was unable to find a record label to distribute it. Finally, after taking the master to a department store, they convinced a manager to play it in the listening booth of the store's music department. The song received positive reactions from teenage listeners, and a scout from Highland Records offered the group a recording contract, under the condition that the company take possession of the master recording, and that David Ponci be named as the author of the song, as he was the eldest member of the group.

"Angel Baby" made its radio debut in December 1960, before the group had even received their contract. When the contract finally came, Hamlin found that she was ineligible to collect record royalties from the song because she was not listed as the songwriter. This led to the group's break-up, and although Hamlin secured the copyright to her music in 1961, decades of battles over royalties followed.

In 1961, "Angel Baby" was also released in Canada on the Zirkon label and in England on London Records. The British release slightly edited the intro.

After Highland

After leaving Highland Records, Hamlin recorded a full-length album with guitarist Noah Tafolla for Brunswick Records and toured with the label's other artists.

Hamlin and Tafolla married and had two children together, and in 1963, she retired from singing to spend time with her family.

She returned to record singles in 1969 and again in 1973, performing occasionally throughout the 1970s and 1980s and more regularly throughout the 1990s and 2000s.

In a 1969 interview with Life magazine, John Lennon named Hamlin as one of his favorite singers. As can be heard on circulating recordings, The Beatles mention the song "Give Me Love" during sessions on 01/24/69. Lennon and friends can be heard in a quickly busked version of "Angel Baby," taped at his birthday in 1971. Lennon recorded a studio version of "Angel Baby" for his 1975 Rock 'n' Roll album, but the track would go unissued until 1986's Menlove Avenue. Rosie and the Originals are referenced by Led Zeppelin in the liner notes from their 1973 album entitled, Houses of the Holy, following the printed lyrics of the song "D'yer Mak'er" (pronounced, "Jamaica"). The quote is, "Whatever happened to Rosie and the Originals?" "Rosie" also shows up in the Led Zeppelin song, "How Many More Times."

1995-Today

In 1995, Rosie & The Originals were portrayed in the film, My Family, performing "Angel Baby." Hamlin's part was played by Jeanette Jurado, of the group, Expose. In 1996, Linda Ronstadt recorded a version of "Angel Baby" for her album Dedicated to the One I Love.

In 1999, Ace Records released The Best of Rosie & The Originals, including all the Highland tracks as well as Brunswick recordings and unreleased tracks. The following year,the label released the album Angel Baby Revisited, with previously unreleased material.

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

Sample