Shaggy, Rayvon’s ‘Angel’ Certified Platinum In The UK

Shaggy and Rayvon’s 2001 hit Angel is now certified Platinum in the United Kingdom.

The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) announced the certification on Friday (November 1), recognizing the track’s sales and streaming figures, which have now surpassed 600,000 units. It had been certified Gold (400,000 units) in May 2001.

Angel, which appeared on Shaggy’s Hot Shot album, remains a go-to for wedding playlists to this day and was the 17th most successful song of 2001 in the U.S. Produced by Shaun “Sting International” Pizzonia, the song had reached No. 1 in 12 countries, including the United Kingdon, Canada, and the United States.

It featured an interpolation of the lyrics of Evie Sands’ original 1967 song  Angel of the Morning , while the beat interpolated elements from the Steve Miller Band’s song 1973, The Joker . In a 2021 Billboard interview, Shaggy pointed out that the bass component of The Joker was, in fact, Reggae.

“DJ Paul, who used to play at the Club Illusion in Brooklyn, was a really good friend with my longtime producer Sting International. He actually made a suggestion of interpolating Steve Miller Band’s 1973 song The Joker,” he had explained.

“So that bass — doom-doom, do-do-doom-doom — is actually a reggae bassline even though it’s from a rock song.  It just had that groove that made you want to put your arms around it,” he said.

With respect to the lyrics, Shaggy said that: “myself and Dave Kelly had already written one verse. While we were playing it, RikRok actually walked in singing that melody. I was like, ‘Wow, that’s dope’. We ended up just flipping the words and making it cooler by saying ‘peeps’ and ‘shorty’. That was the slang that was going on at the time.”

“I ended up finishing the second verse and the bridge with RikRok. That made me realize we had a special record,” he added. 

Angel‘s official music video has over 500 million views on YouTube.

Shaggy’s most successful track in the UK is It Wasn’t Me with Rikrok, which is currently certified 4X Platinum. 

His song Boombastic is certified Platinum, while I Need Your Love with Mohombi, Faydee and Costi, and In The Summertime with Rayvon are certified Silver.