Lonely Night (Angel Face)

Album: Song Of Joy (1976)
Charted: 3
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Songfacts®:

  • In 1975, the married pop duo Captain & Tennille went to #1 singing the Neil Sedaka tune "Love Will Keep Us Together." But love didn't keep them together very long – at least according to their next Sedaka cover. In "Lonely Night (Angel Face)," Toni Tennille is wide awake with the chirping crickets and other sounds of the night, pining for the guy who used to call her Angel Face.
  • Sedaka originally recorded this on his 1975 album, The Hungry Years. He also performed it on the January 24, 1976 episode of Saturday Night Live.
  • Sonny and Cher sang this on The Sonny and Cher Show in 1976.
  • This is one of many angel songs to fly up the Hot 100 since the chart's inception in 1955. The first was "Earth Angel" by The Crew-Cuts, which landed at #3 that same year. Other Top 10 entries prior to Captain & Tennille's tune include:

    1955: "Earth Angel (Will You Be Mine)" by The Penguins - #8
    1957: "My Special Angel" by Bobby Helms - #7
    1960: "Teen Angel" by Mark Dinning - #1
    1960: "Devil Or Angel" by Bobby Vee - #6
    1960: "Blue Angel" by Roy Orbison - #9
    1961: "Angel Baby" by Rosie & The Originals - #5
    1961: "Pretty Little Angel Eyes" by Curtis Lee - #7
    1962: "Johnny Angel" by Shelly Fabares - #1
    1962: "Next Door To An Angel" by Neil Sedaka - #5
    1968: "Angel of the Morning" by Merrilee Rush & The Turnabouts - #7
    1968: "My Special Angel" by The Vogues - #7
  • French composer/jazz pianist Michel Legrand recorded an instrumental version for his 1978 album, Times Of Your Life.

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