Establishment Rosalie "Rosie" Méndez Hamlin was raised in
Anchorage, Alaska, before moving to California; she was of Mexican and English descent. She was trained on piano in her youth and started singing with a band at 13. She wrote the lyrics for "Angel Baby" as a poem for "[her] very first boyfriend" when she was 14 years old, attending
Mission Bay High School in
San Diego, California. When she was 15, she and some friends rented the only recording studio they could find within 100 miles of San Diego located in
San Marcos, California, to record the song. The studio was owned by an airplane mechanic who had taken part of his hangar to make it. After taking the
master to a department store, they convinced a manager to play it in the listening booth of the store's music department. before the group had even received their contract. When the contract finally came, Hamlin found that she was ineligible to collect record royalties from the song because she was not listed as the songwriter. This led to the group's break-up, and although Hamlin secured the copyright to her music in 1961, decades of battles over royalties followed. In 1961, "Angel Baby" was also released in Canada (#6) on the Zirkon label and in Australia and England on
London Records. The British release slightly edited the intro.
Departure from Highland Records After leaving Highland Records, Hamlin recorded a full-length album with guitarist Noah Tafolla for
Brunswick Records and toured with the label's other artists under her solo name. Hamlin and Tafolla married and had two children together. Their son
Joey Tafolla is a guitarist best known for his solo career in the 1980s, and for being a member of the band
Jag Panzer. In 1963, Hamlin retired from singing to spend time with her family. She returned to record singles in 1969 and again in 1973, performing occasionally throughout the 1970s and 1980s and more regularly throughout the 1990s and 2000s, which included performances at Madison Square Garden in 2002.
Later years In 1995, Rosie & the Originals were portrayed in the film
My Family, performing "Angel Baby." Hamlin's part was played by
Jeanette Jurado of the group
Expose. In 1996, Linda Ronstadt recorded a version of "Angel Baby" for her album
Dedicated to the One I Love. In 1999,
Ace Records released
The Best of Rosie & the Originals, including all the Highland tracks as well as Brunswick recordings and unreleased tracks. The following year, the label released the album
Angel Baby Revisited, with previously unreleased material. In 2002, Hamlin performed "Angel Baby" on a PBS-TV program,
Red White & Rock. Hamlin died in
Belen, New Mexico on March 30, 2017, aged 71. ==Legacy==