I'm No Angel (song)

"I'm No Angel" is a 1987 single, written by Tony Colton and Phil Palmer and recorded by Gregg Allman, during the course of performing with the Gregg Allman Band. The song is the title track to the Gregg Allman Band album that was released on Epic Records in 1986.

The song was an unexpected hit, reaching Number 49 on the Billboard Hot 100, plus gaining heavy album-oriented rock airplay and reaching Number 1 on Billboard's Album Rock Tracks chart.^[1]

Frequently interpreted to be semi-autobiographical, "I'm No Angel" featured Allman's gruff vocals in a Bruce Springsteen sound alike way, New Orleans music-based^[2] statement of boasting yet acknowledging of fault-strewn purpose:

No, I'm no angel, no I'm no stranger to the street

I`ve got my label, so I won't crumble at your feet

And I know baby, so I've got scars upon my cheek

And I'm half crazy, come on and love me baby ...

Laden with 1980s production touches from Rodney Mills such as heavy keyboards and drums, the record helped revive Allman's image to the pop and rock world, and may have even indirectly contributed to The Allman Brothers Band's successful reformation two years later.

Ironically, one of the people Allman had most not been an angel with, his former wife Cher, immediately identified with the song as well, and performed it in the high-profile opening slot of her 1989-1990 Heart of Stone Tour.^[3]

In subsequent years, "I'm No Angel" has been part of Allman's solo concert repertoire, and has also been played by The Allman Brothers Band, with most of the pop gloss of the original recording eliminated.

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