Angels

When Josh Groban and Brian McKnight join voices for "Angels We Have Heard On High," visions of glorious celestial beings, radiant with wings of gold and tidings of great joy, burst forth from the grand, gorgeous Christmas carol. Yet on the mournful country-folk classic "Angel from Montgomery," John Prine pictures a far simpler, yet every bit as beautiful idea of everyday mercy and grace. Shaggy & Rayvon's reggae-pop "Angel" is the woman who waits for her man through thick and thin, and the true heavenly creature of the smoky lounge standard "Angel Eyes" is none other than jazz great Ella Fitzgerald and her otherworldly voice.

More Angels await, in Next Steps.

Art rockers Talking Heads do their best to see how many angels can dance on the head of a pin with their post-punk groover "Thank You for Sending Me an Angel," while East L.A. heroes Los Lobos paint a more earthbound portrait of barrio life in "Angels with Dirty Faces." Broadway belter Eileen Rodgers serves as Cole Porter's own show-tune herald with a big and brassy take on the old-fashioned spiritual "Blow, Gabriel, Blow;" and a born-again Bob Dylan folds his newfound faith into the easygoing '70s sounds of "Precious Angel."

Wing into Deep Cuts for more great Angels.

Alt-country godfather Gram Parson recruited his own earth angel when he teamed up with Emmylou Harris for the signature ballad "Return of the Grievous Angel," and just like all our Elysian Deep Cuts, the effect is nothing less than heavenly. Certainly Antony & The Johnsons are operating in another realm on their stunningly singular "Blue Angel," while honey-piped, jazz-soul seraphim Lizz Wright searches for "Another Angel" and blues queen Etta James flies sky-high on the heartfelt pleader "How Do You Speak to an Angel?"

"Calling All Angels," sing pop-rock messengers Train, and their soaring song of hope could serve as a title theme for our Angels Essentials, a playlist packed with tracks that describe the perfection of those citizens of the sky with wings, harps, and haloes, not to mention their closest counterparts here on Earth. So where Sarah McLachlan's tender "Angel" makes a lyrical wish for the comfort of a divine guardian, Tavares transforms a chestnut pick-up line into a disco classic on "Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel," and Elvis Costello swaps standout footwear for eternal youth on the new-wave standard "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes." Then again, if any artists were suited to singing about angels, it would be Roy Orbison, whose spine-tingling falsetto lofts the tear-jerking ballad "Blue Angel" into the stratosphere; and Sinéad O'Connor, whose own ethereal pipes transport listeners of her bittersweet "Angel" into a whole other world.