STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT

"'Strangers in the Night'" is a popular song, made famous in 1966 by Frank Sinatra.
Reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100, it was the title song for Sinatra's 1966 album ''Strangers in the Night'', which would become his most commercially successful album. Sinatra despised the song, however, and called it "a piece of shit",^[1]Sinatra's TV specials from classictvinfo.com and "the worst song I ever fucking heard".
One of the features most recognized with the song is Sinatra imitating the melody again with the syllables "doo-be-doo-be-doo", as the track fades to the end. This inspired the name for the cartoon canine Scooby Doo.

Contents

Origins

Cover versions

Notes

External links

Origins

The English lyrics were written by Charles Singleton and Eddie Snyder. The music was originally composed by Ivo Robić for the music festival in Split, Croatia. Robić later sang the song in German ("Fremde in der Nacht") and in Croatian language ("Stranci u Noći"). A thorough adaptation and an arrangement of the piece was done for Sinatra's version by Bert Kaempfert; however this adaptation was taken to court in 1966 by composer Ralph Chicorel who claimed that 24 of "Strangers'" 32 bars had been copied from his song, "You Are My Love." Chicorel's song, "You Are My Love" was the title tune of a 12 song 1965 LP demo, submitted to both Sinatra and Jack Jones' record companies through the Detroit, Michigan distributor of their labels in 1966. The case was settled out of court after years of Kaempfert not showing up to court dates. Chicorel still claims that "true justice" has not been served as the song's success and "wrongful attribution" were not made up for in the settlement.

Cover versions

★ Allan Sherman parodied this song in his ''Strangers in My Soup''.

★ Cake covered this song for the to the videogame ''Stubbs the Zombie in "Rebel Without a Pulse"''. It also appears on their album ''B-Sides and Rarities'' (2007).

★ José Feliciano covered this song as "Extraños En La Noche" on the album ''Sombras... Una Voz, Una Guitarra'' in 1967.

★ A cover version by Bette Midler was released from her 1976 album ''Songs for the New Depression'', but failed to chart aside from a minor placing on the Adult Contemporary charts.

★ Rodney Dangerfield covered the song before his death.

★ Michael Bublé sang the song in the film ''Duets'' (2000).

★ Barry Manilow covered the song on ''The Greatest Songs of the Sixties'' (2006).

Notes

1. "Sinatra: The Life," Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan, Alfred A. Knopf, Random House, Inc., New York, 2005, p149.

External links

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