A record deal was worked out, which her mother had to sign because Hamlin was too young. Three weeks later, she heard disc jockey Alan Freed playing the song several times a day and raving about it. They arranged a meeting for that night and the group gave the two men, who Hamlin said looked “grungy and scary,” the master without any contract. The interest in the song caught the attention of a distributor for Highland Records who happened to be in the store. The group brought the master to Kresge’s Department Store in San Diego and asked the manager to play it. A completely ad-libbed second song, “Give Me Love,” was sung by a friend Blueford Wade for the B-side. It was actually an old airplane hanger.” Over 30 takes of the song were recorded on a two-track machine. “We finally arrived at this place that looked to us like an old barn. In those days San Marcos was out in the middle of nowhere,” she recalled. One hot summer day in 1961 we piled into a car and headed out to San Marcos, CA. “I wrote a poem about a teenage love entitled ‘Angel Baby.’ We decided to record the song. “Angel Baby” had its beginnings when she was 14. It wasn’t much money, she wrote, but “I didn’t care.
She got the job and she said was paid in tips. When she was 13, she pretended to be 16 and auditioned over the phone to sing in a country western band. Hamlin was born on Jin Klamath Falls, Ore., according to an autobiography on her website. A 1961 follow-up to “Angel Baby,” “Lonely Blue Nights,” was not successful, rising only to No. It remained there only one week before beginning its decline. 29, 1961, bumping out Lawrence Welk’s “Calcutta,” which had risen to No.
5 on the Hot 100 chart for the week ending Jan. 6 in succeeding weeks before peaking at No. 13, 1960 and began what became a 13-week run. “Angel Baby,” which was released in 1960 on Highland Records, debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. Thank you for all your wishes and time and kind words. She did still paint and tended a very lovely garden. She didn’t perform anymore, and had removed herself from the music scene because of health concerns. “Very Saddened to say that my mom Rosalie Hamlin passed away today March 30, 2017,” the statement on the website began. The cause of Hamlin’s death was unknown as of press time, but she had suffered from fibromyalgia for years. Rosalie Hamlin, the lead singer of Rosie and the Originals who recorded the early ’60s one-hit wonder classic “Angel Baby,” has died at age 71.Ī note by a family member posted on the group’s official website said she passed away on Thursday (March 30).