Gone way too soon, Jeff Healey’s legacy as a musician of rare virtuosity and versatility far outweighs his one-hit wonder status in the US. At least his one hit was a rock-solid song, one that shows off both his potent singing voice and his stunning guitar ability.
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Recorded with his trio The Jeff Healey Band, “Angel Eyes” skied to No. 5 in America in 1989. Delivered by a pair of ace songwriters, the bluesy love song proved an outstanding vehicle for Healey to introduce himself to the American mainstream.
Prodigy Rising
When Jeff Healey received a guitar at a very early age, he instinctively put it on his lap and played it that way. Healey, left blind as a child after a rare cancer forced the removal of his eyes, quickly earned prodigy status on the instrument. Even before he was ten years old, he was appearing on television in his native Canada, showing off his talents.
Healey was pushing towards a career in music by the time he was in his teens. This was in addition to his sidelight hosting radio shows, where he showed off his stunning record collection and an encyclopedic knowledge of blues, jazz, and just about any roots-based music you could imagine.
With bassist Joe Rockman and drummer Tom Stephen, he formed The Jeff Healey Band in the mid-80s. Record labels soon came calling, leading to a deal with Arista Records. Clive Davis of the label wanted a hit song that would put Healey in the limelight. Two ace songwriters stepped up.
Searching for an “Angel”
Right around the time that Jeff Healey was signing his record deal and planning for his first album with his band, John Hiatt, who’d already been in the business for many years, was enjoying a career resurgence. His albums Bring The Family (1987) and Slow Turning (1988) received great acclaim, while other songs he wrote gained renown through covers by other artists (most notably Bonnie Raitt’s take on “A Thing Called Love” in 1989).
Yet Hiatt still occasionally struggled to place his songs. He wrote several songs with Fred Koller, and the duo hoped for a big name to record them. They hadn’t yet heard of Jeff Healey when they found out he’d be recording the song “Angel Eyes”.
Hiatt and Koller, both single when they wrote “Angel Eyes”, imagined the song as one that might win over the fairer sex with its lovely affirmations. The Jeff Healey Trio released the song right around the same time they appeared in the film Road House. All that exposure paid off, as “Angel Eyes” landed at No. 5 on the pop charts.
Behind the Lyrics of “Angel Eyes”
“Angel Eyes” is a tribute to an attractive woman from the guy who can’t believe how lucky he is to be with her. “What you’re doing with a clown like me,” he muses. “Is surely one of life’s little mysteries.” He details his awkwardness. “Across a crowded room was close enough,” he sighs. “I could love but I could never touch.”
In the last verse, he admits that her beauty causes him some apprehension. “If this is love why does it scare me so?” he asks. And in the end, he has nothing but questions about his dumb luck: “What did I do? What did I say?/To turn your angel eyes my way.”
Jeff Healey played in a wide variety of genres, pretty much knocking them all out of the park in his brief career. But “Angel Eyes” was his surest pop shot, ready-made as it was for his immense talents to tackle.
Photo by Niels van Iperen/Getty Images
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