In this song, Robbie Williams sings about his guardian angel, who offers him both protection and affection.
Williams told his biographer Chris Heath that this song is about his fascination with the paranormal: "I believed that stuff when I wrote 'Angels' – that's why I wrote 'Angels.'
'Angels' isn't about anybody, it's about the thoughts that loved ones that have passed on come back and take care of you." (Source: The Daily Telegraph November 6, 2009).
Williams had previously been a member of boy band Take That, but quit the group in 1995. His solo career stalled until "Angels" was released on Christmas 1997.
The main songwriter and frontman of Take That was Gary Barlow, whose solo career started well, (his song "Love Won't Wait" being co-written with Madonna), but soon dried up, the opposite of what happened to Williams. Barlow went on to become a professional songwriter and
X Factor judge. He wrote hits for Alesha Dixon ("
To Love Again") and Matt Cardle ("
Run For Your Life").
Although it only reached #4, "Angels" spent 27 weeks on the UK chart and is by far Williams' biggest-selling song. He quickly cemented his stardom in Britain, scoring a series of hits, including the #1 duet with Nicole Kidman on "
Somethin' Stupid." He has also dueted with Kylie Minogue, Neil Tennant (from The Pet Shop Boys) and Neil Hannon (from The Divine Comedy).
This is regarded as a classic in the UK and is a massive karaoke favorite. It's one of those songs that is constantly played on pub jukeboxes. A review of it said that it "taps into the sentimental old git in all of us."
There was a lot of press rivalry with Williams and the Gallagher brothers from Oasis, one of their more printable insults of Williams being "That fat dancer from Take That." Many Britpop fans felt that "Angels" was an attempt to cash in on the then huge Britpop craze by writing a mainstream song in a similar style.
After this song, Williams became a huge star in the UK despite criticism that he was a glorified cabaret singer. He has tried many times to break the US market, all attempts being unsuccessful. He eventually said that he gave up and "couldn't be arsed."
Williams co-wrote "Angels" with the Irishman Ray Hefferman, then Robbie's longtime collaborator Guy Chambers transformed it into his biggest worldwide-selling single. Hefferman recalled in an interview promoting the 2006 Manchester Irish Festival how he earned a paltry £7,500 from the song: "We (Hefferman and Williams) met in a Dublin pub during the Christmas holidays of 1996, and proceeded to go out and have a few beers etc. He ended up staying in my place, as we had said we would try to write some songs together. I had one that I had written in Paris called 'An Angel Instead,' which he liked, and we worked on it together. He called Louis Walsh, who organised a studio for us, and we recorded a version of it here in Dublin. He went back to England after that, and we lost touch. I was therefore very surprised to hear that 'Angels' was on his new album. I got in touch, and essentially signed a waver of my rights to the song for just £7,500 and the rest is musical history, I'm still writing songs and selling albums independently and he is a corporation."
As "Angels" was unknown in the US, Jessica Simpson covered it in 2004. In the UK, most reviewers were less than impressed with her take on it.
In a UK based VH1 poll of best #1s, worst #1s and songs that should have got to to #1, this was voted the top song that should have topped the charts.
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Suggestion credit:
Adam - Dewsbury, England, for all above
The drummer on this song, Chris Sharrock, went on to become a founder member of Liam Gallagher's post-Oasis band Beady Eye.
The black-and-white video was directed by Vaughan Arnell and shot at Saunton Sands beach in England. It was the first of many Robbie Williams videos directed by Arnell; others include "
Bodies" and "
Heavy Entertainment Show."
Robbie Williams performed a duet version of this song with Russian soprano Aida Garifullina at the 2018 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony held at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia. He also sang "
Let Me Entertain You," "
Feel" and "
Rock DJ" but he provoked an angry action on social media by flipping the bird at the camera during his performance of the latter song.
"Angels" is inspired by Williams' belief in the Christian concept of celestial beings. He reasons his anthem most likely came via divine inspiration from God.
"People think it's about my mum, or that it's about somebody or something," he said on the Weaponized YouTube page. "It's actually about angels, it's actually about St. Michael, it's actually about Gabriel. Do I have a belief in angels? I love the idea of angels. It's not lost on me that the most powerful song that I've ever had is about an angelic force, maybe there's something in that."
Can you imagine writing one of the most iconic songs of the '90s while feeling like your head is about to explode? That's exactly what happened to Guy Chambers when he and Robbie Williams penned "Angels."
Chambers spilled the beans about this musical miracle (and medical misfortune) during a March 2024 interview at Confetti Institute of Technologies' Industry Week. Apparently, a brutal sinus infection almost derailed the whole session.
"'Angels' started in my bedroom where I had a little studio set up, and it went from there to the studio where we (I and Robbie) recorded it," Chambers recalled.
"Then we went on tour with it and we noticed how people reacted to it before it had even come out. It was our second day of working together and I had a terrible sinus infection. I remember phoning my mother before, saying, 'I really don't think I can do this session. I'm going to cancel it.'
Chambers listened to his mum's intuition. "She said, 'Guy, I've got this feeling about today. Whatever you do, don't cancel it.'" So, armed with tissues and a pounding head, Chambers hauled himself to the studio.
And wouldn't you know it, magic struck! Williams started belting out that now-legendary line, "I sit and wait. Does an angel contemplate my fate?" a cappella. Chambers, fueled by a combination of duty and decongestants, started tickling the ivories. Soon, "Angels" was taking flight.
But there's a twist! The song's lack of a middle eight? Blame Chambers' sinus symphony. "We wrote two verses and a chorus," he admitted. "The reason that song doesn't have a middle eight is because of my sinus infection."
"The original demo for 'Angels' was just piano, his voice and me singing (backing vocals). That's it. There are no drums, there's no guitar. Just very, very simple – and again, that was because I thought I was going to die. I thought my head was going to explode."
So why does "Angels" resonate with so many people? "It's one of the few Robbie songs that isn't very specific to his life. It's a universal song,"
Chambers suggested to NME. "A lot of his lyrics aren't very personal and have a lot of his humor in it and that kind of thing. Quirky would be the word I'd use. 'Angels' isn't like that."
"'Angels' is a spiritual song," he added. "It's kind of a hymn. Therefore, I think because of that, it was this massive deal. We should have written more like that really, but we didn't."
Before "Angels" became his signature song, Robbie Williams was on the verge of being dropped by his label. EMI had already started internal discussions about letting him go after four singles that performed worse each time. His debut album, Life Thru a Lens, sold just 33,000 copies in eight weeks, not nearly enough for the investment they'd made. He called "Angels" a "Hail Mary attempt" to save his career, and, as he put it, "fortunately for me, it worked."
