the penguins sang the original version of earth angel.
the penguins sang the original version of earth angel.
who sang the original version of earth angel?
the penguins
at the time, it was a rare achievement for an r&b song to chart within the top echelons of the pop chart. the penguins were the first west coast r&b group to dent the pop top ten. in may 1955, dootsie williams was presented with a gold record to celebrate the record selling one million copies (it was reported that nearly 200,000 copies of "earth angel" were sold in southern california alone). with the popularity of the song "the flying saucer", the single saw revived sales in summer 1956. when the penguins switched to mercury records, the label reissued "earth angel" in september 1956 with string accompaniment. the following july, "billboard" reported that the single was again breaking out in certain markets, remarking, "this wax breaks out every summer." it made another appearance at #101 in late december 1959. indeed, "billboard" confirmed the single's enduring popularity in 1960: "the original version of 'earth angel,' for example, is still known to be a heavy traffic item in many areas." by 1963, williams had told "billboard" the single had passed the 2,000,000 mark, and it was reported to be the top-selling single of dootone records (at this period renamed dooto). the same year, it was reported that thousands of bogus copies of "earth angel" were attempted to be sold by an unidentified counterfeiter.
earth angel
although it was an unfinished demo, "earth angel" began to see immediate success. williams carried a rough acetate dub with him to dolphin's of hollywood all night record shop, a local record store, to gauge shop owner john dolphin's opinion. dolphin broadcast a late-night rhythm and blues broadcast from his store, and kgfj disc jockey dick hugg was sitting in. hugg played both sides of the single, and by the next morning, requests began coming in for the song. as a result, williams abandoned an idea to overdub additional instrumentation and began immediate manufacturing of the 7" single to issue it as soon as possible. still convinced "hey señorita" would be the hit, it was pressed to the a-side; disc jockeys soon began flipping the record in favor of "earth angel". the demand for "earth angel" nearly bankrupted dootone; producer walter williams ran out of label paper, leading the single to be pressed on multiple colored labels. it made its first appearance in "billboard" as a territorial hit for los angeles, becoming the second best-selling r&b single in los angeles for the second week of october 1954. it climbed to number one for the city by november 13, after which it began to grow in popularity in new york, philadelphia, cincinnati, cleveland, buffalo, pittsburgh, and nashville.
earth angel