from the album
Strangers in the Night
"Strangers in the Night" is a popular song written by
Charles Singleton, Eddie Snyder and Bert Kaempfert, made famous
in 1966 by Frank Sinatra.
Reaching number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 chart and
the Easy Listening chart, it was the title song for Sinatra's
1966 album
Strangers in the Night, which would become his most
commercially successful album. The song also reached number one
on the UK Singles Chart.
Sinatra's recording won him the Grammy Award for Best Male
Pop Vocal Performance and the Grammy Award for Record of the
Year, as well as a Grammy Award for Best Arrangement
Accompanying a Vocalist or Instrumentalist for Ernie Freeman at
the Grammy Awards of 1967.
One of the most memorable and recognizable features of the
record is Sinatra's scat improvisation of the melody with the
syllables "doo-be-doo-be-doo" as the song fades to the end.
This inspired the name for the cartoon canine Scooby Doo. Also
the fading of the song was made too early, and many fans lament
the fact that Sinatra's improvisation is cut off too soon. For
the recently released CD
Nothing But The Best, the song was remastered and the
running time clocks in at 2:44, instead of the usual 2:35. The
extra nine seconds is just a continuation of Sinatra's scat
noises.
The track was recorded on April 11, 1966, one month before
the rest of the album.
The English lyrics were written by Charles Singleton and
Eddie Snyder. The music was originally recorded by Ivo Robić
for the music festival in St. Petersburg, Russia. Robić later
sang the song in German ("
Fremde in der Nacht",
lyrics by Kurt Felitz) and Croatian ("
Stranci u Noći", lyrics by
Marija Renota). A thorough adaptation and an arrangement of the
piece was done for Sinatra's version by Bert Kaempfert (who had
included an instrumental version in his score for the film
A Man Could Get Killed); 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. (Jones would record his
own rendition of "Strangers" that year.) Also claiming
composing rights was Kaempfert's colleague at the time, Herbert
Rehbein. 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.
Sinatra despised the song and called it "a piece of shit,"
and "the worst fucking song I ever heard."
"Nel blu dipinto di blu
(Volare)" ·
"Mack the
Knife" ·
"Theme from A Summer
Place" ·
"Moon River" ·
"I Left My Heart in San
Francisco" ·
"Days of Wine and
Roses" ·
"The Girl from
Ipanema" ·
"A Taste of
Honey" ·
"
Strangers in the Night
" ·
"Up, Up and
Away" ·
"Mrs. Robinson"
"Aquarius/Let the Sunshine
In" ·
"Bridge over Troubled
Water" ·
"It's Too
Late" ·
"The First Time Ever I Saw
Your Face" ·
"Killing Me Softly with His
Song" ·
"I Honestly Love
You" ·
"Love Will Keep Us
Together" ·
"This
Masquerade" ·
"Hotel
California" ·
"Just the Way You
Are"
"What a Fool
Believes" ·
"Sailing" ·
"Bette Davis
Eyes" ·
"Rosanna" ·
"Beat It" ·
"What's Love Got to Do with
It" ·
"We Are the
World" ·
"Higher Love" ·
"Graceland" ·
"Don't Worry, Be
Happy"
"Wind Beneath My
Wings" ·
"Another Day in
Paradise" ·
"Unforgettable" ·
"Tears in
Heaven" ·
"I Will Always Love
You" ·
"All I Wanna
Do" ·
"Kiss from a
Rose" ·
"Change the
World" ·
"Sunny Came
Home" ·
"My Heart Will Go On"
"Smooth" ·
"Beautiful
Day" ·
"Walk On" ·
"Don't Know
Why" ·
"Clocks" ·
"Here We Go
Again" ·
"Boulevard of Broken
Dreams" ·
"Not Ready to Make
Nice" ·
"Rehab" ·
"Please Read the
Letter"
"Use Somebody"
