Sinful
Almost everyone who ever liked Angel has a story to tell about Edwin Lionel Meadows, better known to the rock world as "Punky" Meadows. The legend goes that he was given a sound thrashing by his mom for sneaking out of the house to see an Elvis Presley movie (we're not sure from her response whether Mrs. Meadows hated rock or just loved movies). Meadows' most famous outfit started off as Sweet Mama From Heaven, but that was not a band name made in heaven, so the quintet soon adopted Angel as their moniker, taken from the Jimi Hendrix song of the same name. Angel's whiter-than-white polyester outfits were intended to give the band a sort of counterpoint to their labelmates Kiss' more, um, flamboyant, stage wear. And, in a way, the group was never able to emerge from beneath the shadow of Kiss. Sinful, the band's fifth album, followed closely on the heels of their biggest commercial success, 1978's White Hot, which had contained a hit cover of the Rascals' "Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore." Unfortunately, Sinful didn't contain any breakout singles, and the album only managed to make it to #159 on the pop album chart. Sinful is just a plain old fun kinda romp. If you long for the days when Headbanger's Ball seemed to run on MTV three times daily, spandex was the material of choice, and bands like Poison and Winger ruled the airwaves, you're gonna love Angel, the spiritual grandaddy of them all.