Songoftheday 11/15/22 - Why does the color of my coffee match your eyes? Why do I see you when a stranger passes by?

 

 

"When I Think About Angels" - Jamie O'Neal

from the album Shiver (2000)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #35 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 3

 

Today's song comes from Australian-born singer Jamie O'Neal, whose debut single "There Is No Arizona" went all the way to #1 on the country music chart and crossed over to the Hot 100 top-40 at the beginning of 2001. The second single from the her first album Shiver was the set's opener, "When I Think About Angels". Written by O'Neal with Roxie Dean and Sonny Tillis and produced by Keith Stegall, the song is a contrast to the dour (but stellar) first single. It's a bright and shiny midtempo love song, the kind that Faith Hill (and for a while Martina McBride) were hitting big with. And like Faith's "This Kiss", this one is full of rhetorical questions about why is she feeling this way. But it's nice and pleasant and O'Neal does a capable job "selling it", and of course Stegall's production is squeaky clean. That's important - there's nothing offensive in this record, but then again, nothing that would make you think. It's just to let to sound wash over you from the radio, and the single did its job...

"When I Think About Angels" became O'Neal's second (and so far last) trip into the top 40 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart in August of 2001, and her highest placing on the list. Like its predecessor, the song spent a week at #1 on their Country Airplay chart. At the Grammy Awards in 2002, "When I Think About Angels" was nominated for Best Country Song, up against "There Is No Arizona", with neither winning - it went to Alison Krauss & Union Station's "The Lucky One" written by Robert Lee Castleman. 

The third single from Shiver was the title track, which stopped at #21 on the Country Airplay chart. That was followed by "I'm Not Gonna Do Anything Without You", a duet with fellow Mercury Records labelmate Mark Wills (it was also on his own Loving Every Minute album), which peaked at #31 on the Country Airplay list. Lastly, the song "Frantic" (a SHeDaisy knockoff) was offered as the fifth single in the beginning of 2002, and just missed the country radio top-40 at #41. 

The next year, Jamie returned with what was meant as the lead single to her sophomore effort, On My Way To You. But after "Every Little Thing" underperformed on the radio, stalling at #34, the album was shelved, and O'Neal left the company. 

O'Neal moved on to Capitol Records, where she released her now-second album Brave in 2005, which came in at #40 on the Billboard 200 sales tally and #6 on the Country Albums list, her highest rank on each (though selling significantly less than her debut). First single "Trying To Find Atlantis" gave Jamie back her momentum, placing at #18 on the Country Airplay chart, and #86 on the Hot 100. The second try, "Somebody's Hero", did even better, spending a week at #3 on the country radio chart, and stopping at #51 on the Hot 100. But the same thing happened at Capitol, for when a prospective new album's tie-in, "God Don't Make Mistakes", stalled down at #47 on the country radio chart, O'Neal was let go before a new album could arrive. 

Jamie moved to the indie label 1720 Records, putting out the first single and title track to a proposed album "Like A Woman", but after it stopped at #43 on the country chart, she found again the set shelved. 

Since then, O'Neal has released three full-length albums independently, with a seasonal record, Spirit & Joy, coming out last month. A video for the promoted single "Christmas" came with it.

(7/10)

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Here's a stripped down version of the song for a live gig in 2015...

Lastly, O'Neal released a new version of "When I Think About Angels" with Martina McBride in 2020...

Up tomorrow: New York rap icon spells it out for you.