WCSX Classic Cuts
Aerosmith: “Angel”
The Hook: Guitarist Brad Whitford worried whether the full band recording would be as powerful as the stripped down version he heard the first time it was played to him.
Album: Permanent Vacation
Year: 1987
Writers: Steven Tyler and Desmond Child
Stats: Peaked at number-two on Billboard’s Album Rock Tracks chart and at number-three on the Hot 100.
Background: Guitarist Brad Whitford remembers his reaction the first time the song “Angel” was played for him, before the recording sessions for Aerosmith’s Permanent Vacation album.
Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford on hearing “Angel” for the first time, before the band recorded it. OC:…it does. :25
“I walked into the warehouse where we work right after it was written, and there it was just piano, a little bit of guitar, and the vocal. It was stunning. It was so impressive and I got chills from it. I always wondered how the changes would affect people’s first time listen, ’cause I was just knocked over. I worried whether, adapted to the band, it would still have the strength and the power it had the way that I heard it, but I guess it does.”