John Prine wrote "Angel from Montgomery" after a friend suggested writing "another song about old people", referring to Prine's song "Hello In There". Although Prine had "said everything I wanted to [about seniors] in 'Hello In There'" he was intrigued by the idea of "a song about a middle-aged woman who feels older than she is...[Eventually] I had this really vivid picture of this woman standing over the dishwater with soap in her hands....She wanted to get out of her house and her marriage and everything. She just wanted an angel to come to take her away from all this". Prine believes he was likely drawn to Montgomery as the song's setting by virtue of being a fan of Hank Williams, who had ties to that city. "Angel from Montgomery" is a concert staple of Hank Williams' granddaughter Holly Williams.

Angel From Montgomery was the original title of the Cherie Bennett/Jeff Gottesfeld screenplay that became the 2006 film Broken Bridges. The screenplay's setting of Montgomery, AL was changed to the fictitious Armour Springs in the film.

The song is also used in the film Who Bombed Judi Bari?.

Introduced on Prine's 1971 self-titled debut album, "Angel from Montgomery" was recorded in 1972 by Carly Simon in her first session for the No Secrets album which was produced by Paul Buckmaster and featured James Taylor's vocals and Danny Kortchmar on guitar. Simon recalls: "Elektra rejected [the tracks from that session] and...asked me to work with Richard Perry. [Elektra] didn't think Buckmaster would produce a hit record for me".

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