Earth Angel (Will You Be Mine) (Williams-Belvin) by The Penguins
Have you heard this classic piece of doo-wop sound exactly like this before? As was the case with the also-posted single version of “The Wallflower” (aka “Dance With Me Henry”) by Etta James, the Penguins’ “Earth Angel” has rarely, if ever, been reissued on LP or CD in its actual original ‘hit version’ form. In fact, many of the various post-1955 45rpm reissues also contained the same dry, unsweetened, and unedited non-single-version track that we’ve been accustomed to hearing for the past 50+ years. With its touch of added reverb, here is the original-issue 45 & 78 single track, but the ‘bad news: label boss Dootsie Williams wanted to get right into the vocal, so he lopped off the first 5 seconds of that now-familiar piano intro!
Cleve Duncan and The Penguins spent three weeks atop the rhythm ‘n blues sales chart with “Earth Angel” and also accomplished the still-rare feat of bringing an R&B hit into Billboard’s ‘pop’ top-10 best-sellers, where it peaked at #8. Of the various cover versions released into the marketplace, the Crew-Cuts rendition was the most successful.
Thanks to Matt The Cat for the loan of his original Dootone 78 used in this post.
THE 1955 HITS ARCHIVE - here in one place, a good-quality library of original-release-version best-sellers and songs that made an impact that were either released or enjoyed a major chunk of their popularity within the calendar year 1955 (some were recorded in 1954).
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