Angel (Sarah McLachlan song)

"Angel"
Single by Sarah McLachlan
from the album Surfacing and City of Angels
B-side
  • "Ice Cream" (live)
  • "I Will Not Forget You" (live)
Released28 September 1998 (1998-09-28)
Length
  • 4:30 (album version)
  • 4:00 (radio edit)
Label
Songwriter(s)Sarah McLachlan
Producer(s)Pierre Marchand
Sarah McLachlan singles chronology
"Adia"
(1998) 		"Angel"
(1998) 		"I Will Remember You"
(1999)
Music video
"Angel" on YouTube

"Angel" is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan. The song first appeared on McLachlan's fourth studio album, Surfacing, in 1997 and was released as the album's fourth and final single in September 1998. The lyrics are about the death of musician Jonathan Melvoin (1961–1996) from a heroin overdose,[1] as McLachlan explained on VH1 Storytellers. It is sometimes mistitled as "In the Arms of an Angel"[2] or "Arms of the Angel".

"Angel" was McLachlan's second consecutive top-five hit on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number four. It also spent 12 weeks at number one on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, placing as the number-one song on that chart for 1999. In McLachlan's native Canada, it reached number seven on the RPM 100 Hit Tracks chart and number three on the Adult Contemporary chart. Outside North America, the song has charted in several countries in the years following its release, including reaching number seven in Ireland in 2002 and number nine in Norway in 2008.

Despite the meaning and subject matter of this song, "Angel" is often played at funerals and memorial services due to the lyrics, "You're in the arms of the angel. May you find some comfort here".[3]

Darryl McDaniels of the rap group Run-DMC credited Angel to saving his life when he was suicidal.[4][5]

  1. ^ "Drugs in Songs". Fun Trivia. Archived from the original on 7 March 2014. Retrieved 22 August 2014.
  2. ^ Ebony – Oct 2007 – Page 194 "He decided against killing himself while back in the United States after hearing on the radio Sarah McLachlan's song "In the Arms of an Angel." " and other examples
  3. ^ "Top 10 Funeral Songs". Next Gen Memorials. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
  4. ^ D., Spence (24 February 2006). "DMC: Saved By An Angel – How Sarah McLachlan thwarted the legendary MC's suicidal tendencies". IGN. Archived from the original on 25 October 2008. Retrieved 7 August 2008.
  5. ^ "Darryl McDaniels on The Moth". The Moth Radio Hour.