The speculation and enigma surrounding this song makes it so much better for me, this according to songfacts: The big rumor about this song is that it was written about David Bowie's wife, Angela, who wrote in her autobiography that she once walked in on Bowie and Mick Jagger in bed together - a story Jagger denies. According to the rumor, Jagger wrote this song to appease her, but it was Jagger's bandmate Keith Richards who wrote most of the song. Jagger had this to say about it: "People began to say that song was written about David Bowie's wife but the truth is that Keith wrote the title. He said, 'Angie,' and I think it was to do with his daughter. She's called Angela. And then I just wrote the rest of it." Richards hasn't revealed the identity of Angie, but it may have been inspired by his girlfriend Anita Pallenberg. It might also just be a word that fit the melody. This was a rare ballad for The Stones. Most of their material at the time was hard and aggressive. In the US, it was their only ballad that hit #1. This is one of the few Rolling Stones songs that is acoustic. This was one of the first songs The Stones recorded in Jamaica, where they did most of Goat's Head Soup. The Angela Bowie rumor picked up steam in 1990, when she went on The Joan Rivers Show and claimed she once walked in on David Bowie and Mick Jagger in bed together naked. What's even more shocking is that Rivers had her own talk show. She was quickly replaced by Arsenio Hall. Nicky Hopkins played piano on this track. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France) In 2005 German chancellor Angela Merkel appropriated this acoustic ballad for her Christian Democratic Union Party. "We're surprised that permission wasn't requested," said a Stones spokesman of Merkel's choice of song. "If it had been, we would have said no."
