Wild Angels

Album: Wild Angels (1995)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This Matraca Berg, Gary Harrison and Harry Stinson penned cut was released on November 20, 1995 as the second single from McBride's album of the same name. The song topped the country chart, giving McBride her first ever #1.
  • The song is about a female deciding there must be "wild angels" watching over her and her man, which are keeping their love alive. Matraca Berg told The Boot the story of how the three songwriters crafted the hit. "I started it with Harry. I don't know what we were smoking that day, but it was a very lofty, kind of poetic, lyric. I heard it [recently] and thought, 'What was I thinking?'"

    "We demoed it, and every time Pat [Higdon, my publisher] would play it for somebody, they would say, 'What does this mean'" I knew that the lyric was off, but they loved the music, they loved the title."

    Matraca Berg and Harry Stinson brought in Gary Harrison for the rewrite. "It was just so simple," said Berg. "[He said], "You say, 'Wild angels, wild angels' — what's this other thing, 'Blue horses'?" And after we got that figured out, Martina snatched it up."

    "Gary gave me an epiphany with that song," she added: "Get them a good, kick-ass chorus, and you can write whatever you want to in the verses."
  • That's McBride's daughter, Delaney, who was born in December 1994, that can be heard laughing in the song's intro.
  • Thom Oliphant directed the music video, which finds McBride singing on top of the Clock Tower Building in Brooklyn, New York, while an angel touches the lives of people below. The concept and black-and-white visuals were inspired by the 1987 Wim Wenders film Wings of Desire, about an angel who falls in love with a human woman.

    The shoot was a precarious one, as Oliphant explained to Songfacts: "Up there, it's pretty dangerous. There's nothing to keep you from stepping off the side of the building. For every shot of somebody, from Martina sitting on the side to the extras, there's three guys with safety harnesses crouched behind the ledge making sure that those people are attached to a bungee cord."

    He would return to the location the following year to shoot Amy Grant's "Takes a Little Time" video.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Lajon Witherspoon of Sevendust

Lajon Witherspoon of SevendustSongwriter Interviews

The Sevendust frontman talks about the group's songwriting process, and how trips to the Murder Bar helped forge their latest album.

Steven Tyler of Aerosmith

Steven Tyler of AerosmithSongwriter Interviews

Tyler talks about his true love: songwriting. How he identifies the beauty in a melody and turns sorrow into art.

00s Music Quiz 1

00s Music Quiz 1Music Quiz

Do you know the girl singer on Eminem's "Stan"? If so, this quiz is for you.

Justin Timberlake

Justin TimberlakeFact or Fiction

Was Justin the first to be Punk'd by Ashton Kutcher? Did Britney really blame him for her meltdown? Did his bandmates think he was gay?

80s Music Quiz 1

80s Music Quiz 1Music Quiz

MTV, a popular TV theme song and Madonna all show up in this '80s music quiz.

Experience Nirvana with Sub Pop Founder Bruce Pavitt

Experience Nirvana with Sub Pop Founder Bruce PavittSong Writing

The man who ran Nirvana's first label gets beyond the sensationalism (drugs, Courtney) to discuss their musical and cultural triumphs in the years before Nevermind.