“Half Angel”
by Richie Marsh and The Hoodwinks
1961 song
The B-side of Richie Marsh and The Hoodwinks’ 1961 single was "Half Angel", backing up the flip "Baby Baby Baby". "Half Angel" was written by Li’l Rascal Darla Hood, whom Richie (a.k.a. Sky Saxon) met while working as a swimming pool digger. She sings backup on the song, which was released on her husband’s label Acama Records.
"Half Angel" is playful and gentle, the least offensive early rock music imaginable. “A half angel is better than no angel at all,” he sobs. The only life in the track, really, is Richie’s proto-buzzsaw vocals. He’s playing it super sweet on "Half Angel" but it isn’t a great leap from this high-pitched teen croon to the rambunctious shouting hippie rabble-rouser he’d become with The Seeds.
The 1982 oddities compilation LP Bad Part Of Town included "Half Angel" among its vinyl-sourced rarities. The song is also included on the 2003 LP Sky Saxon Presents "A Starlight Date With Richard Marsh" but has had extreme noise reduction applied to it, rendering it thin and muffled.
