“Life is one big party when you still young but who is gonna have your back when its all done” were words heard on every radio station in almost every country every hour on the hour. Those words replaced “honey came in and she caught me red handed sleeping with the girl next door”. Shaggy had the entire world, both young and old championing his cause.
In 2001 Shaggy was the most successful billboard artist with two number one singles that year. Following the smash success of his chart topper “It Wasn’t Me”, he followed up with “Angel” featuring singer Rayvon. That same year “Family Affair” by Mary J Blige, “Bootylicious” by Destiny’s Child, “Fallin” by Alicia Keys and “You Got It Bad” by Usher also went number 1. With chart impact on January 9, 2001, Angel turns 21 in just over a month after reaching number one in over 12 countries upon release.
The song debuted at number 81 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in December 2000 and first entered the top 40 at number 39 in January 2001. By March it peaked at number one on the chart for one week beating Crazy Town‘s “Butterfly” to number one by a margin of two points, which was the smallest gap between two singles since digital chart storage in 1985. Per Billboard Magazine.
Angel sold 1,494,000 digital copies in the US as of April 2016 and has been number one in Australia, Austria, Flanders, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, topping the Eurochart Hot 100 as well In Australia, it peaked atop the ARIA Singles Chart for eight weeks, finishing fourth on the Australian year-end chart for 2001. In Ireland, it is the 20th-highest-selling single of all time.
There has since been several remade versions of the song most notably by Shaggy himself who recruited Sting to sing Rayvons part for his 20th anniversary re-recording of Hot Shot. Other versions include Max Raabe and Palast Orchester Big Band cover for his 2001 album, Super Hits 2. Also in In 2001, the parody song “You Ripped Off Angel (of the Morning)” was released by Adam Posegate and received airplay on the Dr. Demento Show. R&B artist Bei Maejor’s version of the song samples the original chorus and the beat.
