Alabama’s “Angels Among Us” is one of the legendary country group’s most popular songs. It was first released in 1993 from the band’s album Cheap Seats as a Christmas single, but due to its popularity, it has gone on to be played year-round for various tributes and other occasions.
In one interview, lead singer Randy Owen revealed that so many people were touched by the song that they wrote the band to thank them. Owen said, “We’ve received hundreds of letters from all over the world saying that the song was a blessing.”
But despite its popularity, it wasn’t a big hit when it was released. The song only reached No. 51 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart when it was first released. It experienced more success the following year, but never climbed higher than the No. 22 spot. Still, fans develop a greater sense of fondness for “Angels Among Us.”
The Song That Touch The Souls Of Millions
Written by Don Goodman and Becky Hobbs, “Angels Among Us,” is a heartwarming ballad often credited with instilling hope and peace within its listeners.
“Oh, I believe there are Angels Among Us, sent down to us from somewhere up above. They come to you and me in our darkest hours, to show us how to live, to teach us how to give, to guide us with a light of love,” the song goes.
Songwriter Becky Hobbs gave us a glimpse of how this touching song was born. After enduring a terrifying incident that nearly took her life, “I believe there are angels among us” was all she could make sense of. With those seven words, Hobbs went on to write one of Alabama’s most inspirational songs.
For You
During Christmas time in 1985, Hobbs started having premonitions that she would be in a terrible accident. The fear even forced her to pull over while she and a close friend drove to Oklahoma for Christmas. After safely coming home to Nashville, Hobbs started feeling like the worst was behind her.
While she was making a birthday cake for herself early on the morning of her birthday, another premonition came to the songwriter. “A force took a hold of my arm and took me out into my front yard,” she recalled. “I looked up at the January sky and asked, ‘What? What is it that you’re trying to tell me?’ And a deep masculine voice told me, ‘Be careful. This may be your last birthday.'”
Hobbs was overtaken by that same ominous feeling and felt weak in the knees, so she did not take the force’s warning lightly. And then came one rainy evening, while on her ride home after a show, Hobbs and her band found themselves stopped at a four-way light. Hobbs, on alert, spotted the 18-wheeler barreling towards them just as the light turned green.
“At that moment, our light turned green, and I felt our driver take his foot off the brake,” she added. “In that second, I got that same premonition, and I yelled out for our driver Randy to stop.”
Her quick thinking led to their survival and the making of “Angel’s Among Us.” Hobbs spent the next few years writing the song before asking fellow writer Dan Goodman to help her finish it out. Ever since then, the song has been touching the souls of millions.
You can watch Alabama‘s moving performance of “Angels Among Us” in the video below. But consider yourself warned as you may find it hard to hold back your tears, so keep some tissues nearby.
