Angel in Your Arms

Last updated
"Angel in Your Arms"
Angel in your arms cover.jpeg
Single by Hot
from the album Hot
B-side "Just 'Cause I'm Guilty"
ReleasedFebruary 1977
Recorded1976
Genre Southern soul
Length2:57
Label Big Tree Records
Songwriter(s) Herbert Clayton Ivey, Terrence Woodford, Tom Brasfield
Producer(s) Herbert Clayton Ivey, Terrence Woodford
Hot singles chronology
"Angel in Your Arms"
(1977)
"Right Feeling at the Wrong Time"
(1977)
"Angel in Your Arms"
Single by Robin Lee
A-side "Paint the Town Blue"
ReleasedDecember 1983 ( EV 1016 )
RecordedEvergreen Studios Nashville :
"Angel in Your Arms", "Turning
Back the Covers" recorded 1982
Genre Country pop
Length3:04
Label Evergreen Records
Songwriter(s) Herbert Clayton Ivey, Terrence Woodford, Tom Brasfield
Producer(s) Johnny Morrison
Robin Lee singles chronology
"Heart For a Heart"
(1983)
"Angel in Your Arms"
(1983)
"Want Ads"
(1984)
"Angel in Your Arms"
Single by Barbara Mandrell
from the album Get to the Heart
B-side "Don't Look in My Eyes"
ReleasedJuly 1985
RecordedJune 1985
Genre C&W
Length3:19
Label MCA
Songwriter(s) Herbert Clayton Ivey, Terrence Woodford, Tom Brasfield
Producer(s) Tom Collins
Barbara Mandrell singles chronology
"There's No Love in Tennessee"
(1985)
"Angel in Your Arms"
(1985)
"Fast Lanes and Country Roads"
(1985)

"Angel in Your Arms" is a song composed by Herbert Clayton Ivey, Terrence Woodford, and Tom Brasfield, which was a 1977 Top Ten hit for Hot, and also a Top Ten country hit in 1985 for Barbara Mandrell.

Contents

Content

The song is about a woman who advises an unfaithful mate: "The angel in your arms this morning is gonna be the devil in someone else's arms tonight," meaning that she has assuaged his neglect and infidelities by indulging in illicit trysts of her own.

Hot version

Although "Angel in Your Arms" belongs to the tradition of cheating songs prevalent in country music, the song was introduced by pop/R&B act Hot on their self-titled debut album, recorded in 1976 at Wishbone Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama with Wishbone's owners Clayton Ivey and Terrence (Terry) Woodford producing. [1] It was Hot's lead singer Gwen Owens who requested the group be given a country song, and Ivey and Woodford obliged with "Angel in Your Arms", whose third co-writer was Muscle Shoals resident Tom (Tommy) Brasfield. [2] [3] Although Hot was officially a trio consisting of Owens, Cathy Carson, and Juanita Curiel, Owens has stated that she recorded "Angel in Your Arms" with only Carson as background vocalist: Irene Cathaway, with whom Owens and Carson had been performing and who was expected to record with them at Muscle Shoals, was a no-show at the recording studio, and "Angel in Your Arms" was recorded prior to the recruitment of Curiel as Cathaway's replacement. [4] Ivey played keyboards on Hot's recording of "Angel in Your Arms", which featured Mac McAnally on guitar. At the time of Hot's success with their single version, the group also recorded a Spanish-language version entitled "Angel en Tus Brazos". [5]

Chart history

Picked up by Big Tree Records, "Angel in Your Arms" accrued sufficient airplay to by February 1977 to enter the Billboard Hot 100, entering the Pop Top 40 that April to peak that July at #6; the track also charted R&B (#29) and Easy Listening (#9). Billboard ranked it as the No. 5 song for 1977. Certified a gold record for U.S. sales of one million units, "Angel in Your Arms" was also a hit for Hot in Australia (#27), Canada (#3) and New Zealand (#7).

Chart (1977)Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report)27
Canada Top Singles3
New Zealand Singles Chart7
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 [6] 6
U.S. Billboard Easy Listening [7] 9
U.S. Billboard Hot Soul Singles [8] 29

C&W charting versions

Other versions

"Angel in Your Arms" has also been recorded by:

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