A Personal Experience

I was raised in Los Angeles County, California graduating from Lynwood High School in 1962. After a year at BYU, I returned home to work.

I loved building amplifiers and working on other electronic equipment, and was a loyal listener to pop music radio. I also learned to play the guitar a little, and would sing and accompany popular songs on my guitar as a hobby.

I became very attracted to a girl named April whom I met at the Long Beach Stake Dance, but she wasn't very interested in me. As an expression of my infatuation, I wrote a song called "April," which was musically influenced by the current popular song "Walking in the Rain" by the Ronettes. When I later realized that my interest in April had ended, I changed the name of the song to "Angel." I later met Karen who helped me prepare to serve an LDS mission.

I was called to serve as a missionary to the West Central States Mission beginning March 14, 1966. En-route, I spent two weeks at the MTC in Salt Lake City. Just prior to departing to our missions, we missionaries were given the opportunity to perform before the entire company of missionaries. I was scheduled to perform "Angel." But since "Angel" was simply a love song, I quickly wrote two more verses making it a 'missionary love song,' and then performed it.

My first area as a missionary was Eureka, Montana near the Canadian border to be trained.

Two months later, I was transferred to Columbia Falls, Montana, near Glacier Park. While there, I and two of our investigators, Janet and Marge Thurston (sisters), performed "Angel" as a trio at a community summer outdoor singing festival. The day before I was transferred to Livingston, Montana, I baptized Janet. That Christmas, I sent the Thurston family a large illustrated Book of Mormon. Their mother read it, and was converted. The following year Marge and 'Mom' were baptized after they were contacted by my cousin Sister Joyce Coulson who was also serving near there as a missionary. Their father was finally baptized 25 years later, and the entire family of four was sealed in the Logan Temple.

While I was serving in Livingston, I bought a Sony 350C tape recorder. With my clothes closet doubling as a recording studio, I recorded "Angel." The many clothes filling the closet deadened the sound, and my cheap Calrad microphone was suspended by a wire hanger. Using the "Sound-on-Sound" feature, I recorded the rhythm and lead guitar parts one night using a borrowed Silvertone acoustic guitar from local member, Sister Betty Knight. Early the next morning I recorded the two vocal parts. It turned out pretty well, all things considered.

Meanwhile back in California, Karen met Fred and then sent me a "Dear John." So using another tape recorder, I dubbed a copy of "Angel" to send to her. But she married Fred anyway. In a way I was relieved, as my trainer Elder James Mortensen had cautioned me about girl friends when he said, "You either lose your hair or you lose your girl." He was just finishing his mission and went home to marry his girl, but his hairline was definitely receding. I was very happy to keep all my hair.

Our mission president, Wallace E. Broberg, heard about my recording adventure and asked me to let him store my tape recorder for a while so it wasn't a distraction to my missionary work. I complied.

At my one year mark, March 14, 1967, I was transferred to Blackfoot, Idaho. On a Diversion-Day (Preparation-Day), I borrowed an electric bass guitar from our local music store and a couple of tape recorders from some fellow missionaries. I then added the bass part to "Angel." On a weekly visit to local KBLI, where I recorded Sunday morning religious programs, I left them a copy of "Angel." But I worried that the last two missionary verses might be perceived as too religious by some listeners, so I edited them out. The DJs liked the shortened version so much, they included it in their regular pop music programs.

I was later transferred to Mandan and Bismarck, North Dakota. En-route, I stopped by the mission home in Billings, Montana at the request of our new mission president Joseph J. Jenkins to take back my tape recorder. Thereafter, I used it responsibly for good missionary purposes.

I finished my mission on March 11, 1968 in Bozeman, Montana. I had some wonderful experiences serving the Lord, which I will always remember. I also hope those I taught and baptized will remember the wonderful blessing of the restored Gospel. I am still in contact with Janet who has remained faithful and grown spiritually to be a blessing to many others. If nothing else of worth was accomplished, her conversion alone made my entire two-years as a missionary worthwhile.

After my mission, I attended Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho, now BYU-I. I also worked part-time as a DJ for nearby KIGO in St. Anthony. I played the short version of "Angel" on the air a few times, and quickly became convinced that "Angel" was more than just a novel missionary experience. So I had 1000 45-RPM vinyl records of "Angel" manufactured with the short version on one side, and the full version on the other. I then visited radio stations and record stores from Rexburg to Provo, Utah. In April 1969, "Angel" became the #1 song at KOVO in Provo and KBLW in Logan, Utah, and they were playing the full version. The records sold out, so I ordered another 1000 copies with the full version of "Angel" on one side and another song I recorded named "Alone" on the other side.

I don't think "Angel" is appropriate to play on "Sounds of Sunday," but if you would like to hear it, feel free to listen and/or to download it by clicking on the link below. It's kind of hokey sounding, definitely an amateur recording from the 60's, but I hope you enjoy it anyway. My voice was a bit higher back in those days at the age of 22.

My eternal "Angel" is my wife Linda. We celebrated our 40th Anniversary on June 16, 2011.

http://soundsofsunday.net/Angel

Carl Watkins