1961
ANGEL BABY * ROSIE AND THE ORIGINALS * HIGHLAND 1011 * USA
This one had me, and I suspect many others, believing that Rosie was a black Soul singer, her voice and the song ,on both sides, were in the idiom of the emerging Soul sounds of the time. Rosie, is Rosie Hamlin, who was only fifteen when she wrote and recorded this record in an abandoned aircraft hanger in San Diego, California (I'm sure the authorities would have something to say about that today). Although the record went on to sell hundreds of thousands of copies and became a bench mark for countless teen and preteen girls, Rosie and her group never received a penny until after a long and costly battle which they finally won in 1994 (something which the authorities never seem to have anything to say about).
See other side: