Williams: Angels made me who I am
Robbie Williams’ anthemic hit Angels was the song that propelled the former Take That member to superstardom, becoming an instant classic with its soaring singalong sentimentality.
Amazingly the ballad voted the best song of the past 25 years at tonight’s Brit awards only reached number four in the charts and was apparently written in just 20 minutes.
Once famously slated by Oasis’ Noel Gallagher as no more than “the fat dancer from Take That”, Williams’ solo career was stalling after he left the boy band in 1995.
But with the release of Angels in December 1997 he hit the jackpot.
It was a consistent seller, shifting more than a million copies despite losing out on the number one spot to The Teletubbies Say Eh-Oh!
“Angels is what made me who I am,” Williams, 30, has said of the song.
“It gave me a career. I was going nowhere until that song came out.”
But the singer, who grew up in Stoke-on-Trent, has also spoken of his irritation that many people assume it was written by his former co-writer, Guy Chambers, with whom he has since split.
Chambers acknowledges that Williams was mainly responsible for the lyrics and melody, while he did “the music”.
Angels, the odds on favourite to win the gong, triumphed over a shortlist of five finalists including Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division, Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights and We Are The Champions by Queen.
An initial list of 25 songs, drawn up by industry experts, was whittled down to five by Radio 2 listeners, who then voyed for their overall favourite.
Last year Angels topped a poll of songs which should have made it to number one but never did.
