A Head Full of Wishes is a site for Galaxie 500, Luna, Damon & Naomi, Dean & Britta and Dean Wareham. With news, articles and lists of releases and past and future shows.
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Connections #2 - Angel Corpus Christi
Since yesterday I posted on AHFoW what will probably be the last Angel Corpus Christi post in the my record collection series it seemed an opportune time to look back at her prvious appearances…
#006 Angel Corpus Christi with Dean Wareham - Je t’‘aime / I Wanna Boogie With You (7”)
Angel Corpus Christi and Dean Wareham cover Serge Gainsbourg and Lou Reed - what could be more perfect?
I did declare in the introduction to this series that I was being selective about what from my AHFoW collection would be included, but deciding what to include and what to leave out was becoming far too difficult - for instance, there was no way I’d be leaving out this absolute gem… but why include this and not, for example, Dean guesting on Ivy’s Apartment Life, or Damon & Naomi’s contributions to the Pearls Before Swine Constructive Melancholy compilation. So… everything is going in. Or at least everything that I know of! So my spreadsheet now has 347 rows and weekly posts would take me well into 2029! So… I’m trying to post more frequently!
So, back to Je t’aime / I Wanna Boogie With You … I didn’t buy this at the time of release (1997), but had an mp3 that Angel had put on her “official, unauthorized web site”. I then got it on CD when it was released on ACC’s Louis Louis LP.
I eventually picked this picked this up for a tenner on Discogs in 2016, except annoyingly, without the postcard - it was described in the listing as…
Unplayed vgc pink vinyl in pvc sleeve. No postcard. No sticker. Unplayed one off. From pressing plant at time - Hence no packaging. Low price for rare 7”.
I’m not sure a tenner was a low price for a rare 7” (Discogs says the average is £9) but it was the only copy at the time that was shipping from the UK and so had reasonable postage costs. And I so wanted a copy.
The track was also released on a Munster 7” which I don’t own… yet!
The flip has Angel covering Suicide’s Cheree, with Alan Vega, and The Beach Boys’ Surfer Girl.
Angel can still be found around these parts… ACC web site, ACC Instagram, ACC Bandcamp
- Catalogue Number: AHFOW 11/067
- Artist: Angel Corpus Christi with Dean Wareham
- Title: Je t’aime / I Wanna Boogie With You
- Notes: Pink vinyl, no postcard
- Packaging: PVC sleeve
- Format: 7”
#042 Angel Corpus Christi - Bewitched: A Tribute to Luna
So, I’m breaking a couple of my rules here. Firstly, this is clearly not a random selection from my collections since it was only released a couple of weeks back, and secondly this doesn’t have a “direct relationship to a former member of Galaxie 500” since Dean doesn’t actually play on this release. But, my blog so my rules to break!
When I started this series back in January I declared that I was going to be a bit selective about what I chose to write about and I got an email from Angel Corpus Christi in response to that…
Dont give up on me, Andy. I have six songs on vinyl coming out soon-ish that fits into your scheme of things.
I abandoned being selective pretty much straight away, it was too hard to make choices so, best not to bother. To be honest, ACC was always going to be included at every opportunity so she had nothing to worry about.
… and then, a couple of weeks back, this beauty landed on my doormat (well, was handed to me by the postie - she’s getting quite used to handing me 12” square packages).
Anyone who’s followed ACC on Instagram (and you all should) will be acutely aware of her love of Dean/Luna/Galaxie 500, whether it’s the odd direct reference or photo, or a lyric in a caption. She wears her love on her (beautifully crocheted) sleeve. So, it’s not a huge surprise that she has chosen to release this little LP of Luna covers.
The whole collection is wonderful, filled as it is with Angel’s quirky delivery, and offbeat instrumentation - here’s my track-by-track reaction:
- Bewitched
A gorgeous spacious organ gives this a religious feel - we’re in a church - the song is slowly delivered, carefully built and, then gently dismantled. - Lovedust
Angel’s voice is processed on Lovedust which gives it an off-kilter, other-worldly, feel. But it’s when her accordion kicks in after about 90 seconds that this becomes really special… from then on it’s all about that! - 23 Minutes in Brussels
There’s so much to love about this, partly because there seems to be so much squeezed into the three and a half minutes. I keep listening to this and finding different things that I love most about it - the first minute is a tease of almost conventionality but then… bells and burbles, squeaks and pops, and a solo, and Angel singing with herself. Perfect. - I Want Everything
This was originally released on a single back in 2001. I Want Everything is sometimes, often, my favourite Luna song and a lot of that is about this cover (and IWEG), maybe it’s the 20+ years of familiarity, but this sounds like archetypal ACC. That’s a good thing. - Tiger Lily
Hazel is unaware that Tiger Lily is the Luna song that makes me think of her, she’s not really a Luna fan, so won’t remember us together watching Luna play this in NYC back 2001, but I do. I suspect she likes Angel’s version more than Luna’s - that cool, almost jazzy, almost bossa-nova, feel - and a flute! Maybe I do too? - Slide
So, while I recognised (even if I couldn’t actually identify) most of the instruments listed on the sleeve, the Pianosaurus was a new one on me. What was it? Like a dinosaur piano!? Turns out, yes! And, thanks to the wonderful modern age we live in I can identify it as the instrument that opens and accompanies ACC on Slide. That and the weirdly, not quite rightness of the accordion ending, make this a perfect finish.
With things being a bit quiet on the new for AHFoW, Angel Corpus Christi’s Luna tribute is just what I needed.
- Catalogue Number: AHFOW 12/088
- Artist: Angel Corpus Christi
- Title: Bewitched: A Tribute to Luna
- Notes:
- Packaging: Card sleeve and an insert containing “a secular look at 23 Minutes in Brussels” … and some stickers!
- Format: LP
- Sent to me by ACC
- Buy ‘Bewitched: A Tribute to Luna’ on Bandcamp - there are still vinyl copies left - you should buy one!
Previously on my record collection
- #006: Angel Corpus Christi with Dean Wareham - Je t’aime / I Wanna Boogie With You (7”)
- Bought from Discogs for £10 + postage
#087 therealangelcorpuschristi
Unlike Angel Corpus Christi’s lovely Luna tribute album I don’t have to bend the rules to include therealangelcorpuschristi since Dean plays guitar (and Britta bass) on a Velvet Underground cover.
therealangelcorpuschristi is a compilation album pulling splendid contributions from across Angel’s remarkable body of work. Dean and Britta turn up on a splendid cover of Femme Fatale:
We asked Pete (Sonic Boom) Kember to play on Femme Fatale, and he surprised us with a hypnotizing version featuring Dean Wareham on quitar, Britta Phillips on bass, and Pete on various keys. Pete mixed it too and the result went above and beyond our expectations!
The whole album is amazing and worth hunting down - not sure it ever got a digital release but you can find most of it sprinkled around Angel’s Bandcamp it includes a fab cover of Dream Baby Dream (with Alan Vega!), Angel questioning Lou Reed’s hairstyle choices in Lou Reed’s Hair (but ultimately forgiving him), and a frankly hilarious Baby Elephant Walk/Walk on The Wild Side mash up.
- Catalogue Number: AHFOW 12/001†
- Artist: Angel Corpus Christi
- Title: therealangelcorpuschristi
- Format: LP
- Bought from Amazon for £22.99 (incl postage)
Previously in my record collection:
- [006] Angel Corpus Christi with Dean Wareham - Je t’aime / I Wanna Boogie With You (7”)
- [042] Angel Corpus Christi - Bewitched: A Tribute to Luna
† I had catalogued my memorabilia (clippings, photos, etc.) for years but only started giving my cd and vinyl catalogue numbers a few years ago which is how an album so late in my collection (but so early in the alphabet) has this number.
#297 Angel Corpus Christi - Louie Louie (CD)
Louie Louie is Angel Corpus Christi’s album of songs “by, for, and about Lou Reed” and includes her duet with Dean Wareham on I Want to Boogie With You/Je t’aime that was previously released on a couple of 7” singles.
It also has Dean and Britta guesting on a cover of Femme Fatale, a song that Angel seems to visit at regular intervals (I wrote about Femme Fatale in a recent Substack post), having been on her excellent I♡NY album in 1985, and a solo accordion version on 2003’s Accordion Pop Volume 1. The version on Louie Louie also has Sonic Boom performing and producing and is lovely… as is the whole album and it, like a lot of Angel’s catalogue, can be bought for peanuts on her Bandcamp.
After that Substack post I got an email from Angel giving a little insight into the version of Femme Fatale that appears on Louie Louie:
I dont always love every song I have recorded but I DO love FF… a lot! Best of all was the surprise of D and B contributing, I had only asked Sonic Boom to mix, I was swept off my feet when this version showed up!
Email from Angel Corpus Christi, 1st October 2025
It is a very, very beautiful version… prepare to be swept off your feet!
I bought this CD, along with Accordion Pop, via mail order from Glasgow shop Volcanic Tongue in 2005. Volcanic Tongue was run by David Keenan and his wife Heather Leigh and when I bought the CDs Heather wrote “these CDs are so great, we’re big Angel fans here”.
I have recently been reading my way through a collection of David Keenan’s writings, also called Volcanic Tongue, which is a really good read, I’ve not read any of his fiction but do also own the soundtrack to the play of his novel Memorial Device which was by Stephen Pastel and Gavin Thompson. I’ll get round to reading Memorial Device some time!
This is Angel’s fourth entry in this series, and there is (currently) still one to come… although I’m still looking to fill a gap so hopefully two more to come!
- Catalogue Number: AHFOW 10/145
- Artist: Angel Corpus Christi
- Title: Louie Louie
- Packaging: Card sleeve
- Format: CD
- Bought from Volcanic Toungue with Accordion Pop for £15.98 (incl postage).
- Buy ‘Louie Louie’ on Bandcamp
Previously in my record collection:
- [006] Angel Corpus Christi with Dean Wareham - Je t’aime / I Wanna Boogie With You (7”)
- [042] Angel Corpus Christi - Bewitched: A Tribute to Luna
- [087] therealangelcorpuschristi
359 - Angel Corpus Christi with Dean Wareham - You / I Want Everything
Another beautiful little 7” gem - this one is a lovely red vinyl affair with Dean Wareham guesting with Angel Corpus Christi on her own track “You” and on the flip Angel doing a wonderfully sweet take on Luna’s I Want Everything.
Having gushed a couple of weeks ago about my absolute favourite 7” single in the series we come across a contender for that crown!
You has guitar by Dean and he’s also credited as having mixed it (something that he leaves entirely to Britta these days). Dean isn’t on the b-side but that doesn’t make it any less perfect. The cover of I Want Everything turned up on Angel’s Bewitched: A Tribute to Luna a couple of years back - and def worth tracking down if you can’t find a copy of this beauty.
The single was released on Manchester indie Emma’s House Recordings which had a short run in the early part of the century. I bought the single direct and bought a couple of other releases at the same time… maybe there was an offer?
Here’s a pic of Angel Corpus Christi with Dean Wareham (and Alan Vega) - pinched without asking from Howard Thompson an age ago. By the way Howard’s Insta is an absolute goldmine… as well as Dean and ACC turning up regularly it also regularly pushes my Sugarcubes and Motorhead buttons!
I think this is Angel’s last appearance in this series unless I can track down a missing single without having to pay twice as much again in postage!
I’d guess that Emma’s House was named after the debut single by The Field Mice, released by Sarah Records in 1988.
I was lucky enough to see Deerful doing a beautiful cover of Emma’s House in the church at Indietracks in 2016. I miss Indietracks!
- Catalogue Number: AHFOW 11/044
- Artist: Angel Corpus Christi with Dean Wareham
- Title: You / I Want Everything
- Notes: Limited to 200 numbered copies - mine is #94
- Format: 7”
- Bought direct from Emma’s House for whatever three singles cost back then.
Previously in my record collection:
- [006] Angel Corpus Christi with Dean Wareham - Je t’aime / I Wanna Boogie With You (7”)
- [042] Angel Corpus Christi - Bewitched: A Tribute to Luna
- [087] therealangelcorpuschristi
- [297] Angel Corpus Christi - Louie Louie (CD)
But, of course that’s not all - Dean & Britta did a gorgeous cover of Angel’s lovely Threw It Away on L’avventura. Angel’s original was on her 1994 album White Courtesy Phone. There’s a great live version recorded in Manchester around the time of release on Angel’s Bandcamp:
https://angelcorpuschristi.bandcamp.com/track/threw-it-away-2
… and here’s Dean & Britta’s version from 2003:
https://deanandbritta.bandcamp.com/track/threw-it-away
