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The song reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart at the end of December 1974 and became one of Reddy's biggest-selling singles.
Not everyone understood the meaning of the lyrics at the time, and after the song was released, it inspired a great deal of speculation on its true meaning. The song was compared to Bobbie Gentry's "Ode to Billie Joe" (which had a mystery about "something" thrown off the Tallahatchie Bridge). Some also thought of it as a "Women's Lib" song along the line of Reddy's other hits, like her other #1's, "I Am Woman" and "Delta Dawn," though Alan O'Day, the songwriter says that that was not his intent, and that he was not consciously making a public statement.
O' Day revealed in 1998 that the crazy heroine in the song had magic power and special abilities, and that he had deliberately blurred the lines between fantasy and reality. However, he still declined to give a detailed explanation of what happened to the boy in the song. Helen Reddy herself had joked that the boy had become "a sound wave", an explanation that O'Day later refuted.
O' Day also recorded his composition for his 1977 album "Appetizers". "Angie Baby" has also been recorded by Barbara Dickson and The Tombstones.
Helen Reddy re-recorded it later in 1991 in a downtempo rhythm.