Angie

"Angie" is a masterclass in minor-key balladry: a simple five-chord vocabulary deployed with maximum emotional effect. The E7 dominant gives the A minor tonality a classical, almost flamenco-tinged pull, while the frequent landings on C major offer fleeting consolation that the lyric never quite delivers. The fingerpicked voicings keep the harmony intimate despite the string arrangement layered on top.

"Angie" was written by the Jagger-Richards partnership, with the song's core built around a sparse, fingerpicked acoustic guitar figure in A minor. The identity of the 'Angie' in the lyric has been debated for decades, and the band has never tied it definitively to a single person, leaving it as an open farewell to a fading relationship.

"Angie" stands among The Rolling Stones' most enduring ballads, a stark departure from their swaggering blues-rock toward fragile, string-laden melancholy. Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and produced by Jimmy Miller, it became one of the band's defining slow songs of the 1970s. Its plaintive farewell lyric and intimate acoustic arrangement have kept it a staple of classic rock radio for five decades.