This song was originally written by Ivo Robic for a music festival in Split, Croatia; Robic later recorded versions of it in Croatian ("Stranci u Noci") and in German ("Fremde in der Nacht"). English lyrics about love at first sight were written by Charles Singleton and Eddie Snyder.
Bert Kaempfert rewrote this for the film A Man Could Get Killed, and the song was used as the movie's theme. It won a Golden Globe Award in 1967 for Best Original Song in a Motion Picture. In addition, the song won the 1966 Grammys in four different categories: Record Of The Year; Best Arrangement Accompanying A Vocalist Or Instrumentalist (Ernie Freeman was the arranger); Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male; and Best Engineered Recording - Non-Classical (Eddie Brackett and Lee Herschberg were the engineers).
Other artists who have covered this song include Shirley Bassey, Hal Blaine, James Brown, Vikki Carr, Petula Clark, Engelbert Humperdinck, Brenda Lee, Peggy Lee, Barry Manilow, Al Martino, Johnny Mathis, Bette Midler, Matt Monro, Jim Nabors, Wayne Newton, Johnny Rivers, the Sandpipers, Kate Smith, the Supremes, Mel Torme, the Ventures, Andy Williams, and Young-Holt Unlimited.
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Suggestion credit: Jerro - New Alexandria, PA, for above 3
This was a big comeback song for Sinatra, becoming his first #1 pop hit in 11 years. His previous chart-topper was "Learnin' The Blues" in 1955.
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Suggestion credit: Bertrand - Paris, France
Sinatra ad-libbed the "Dooby dooby doo" closing scat. Iwao Takamoto, the animator who created the cartoon dog Scooby-Doo, said that he got the inspiration to name his character from Sinatra's ad-lib.
Sinatra despised the song, calling it "a piece of s--t." Even though it was his biggest hit in 11 years, the singer never included this number in any of his late 1960s specials.
Country star Glen Campbell, who was then a session musician for hire, played rhythm guitar on this track. According to Campbell, he was one of four guitarists, and the only one using a capo (playing E-Flat). They rehearsed the song about 15 times before Sinatra arrived, then did just three takes before producer Jimmy Bowen stopped the session and selected the first take.
Campbell was positioned next to Sinatra's singing booth, and couldn't stop staring at the singer, since he was, you know, Frank Sinatra. After the session, Campbell was sure he had impressed Sinatra, but he later learned from Bowen that he got his attention for another reason. "He wanted to know who the fag guitar player was," Bowen told Campbell. "Frank said you never stopped looking at him and he thought you were lusting." (As told in Campbell's autobiography Rhinestone Cowboy.)
Glen Campbell recalled to the Daily Mail that when this song was cut, "we did the whole song in two takes. We were all in the studio together, Frank and the band. They spliced together the best bits of both versions for the final record." They were under a time crunch to get the song out as quickly as possible, as Bobby Darin and Jack Jones were also recording the song.
This was one of two Sinatra songs - the other being "That's Life" - prominently featured in the '80s comedy License to Drive. Les (Corey Haim) takes his crush (Heather Graham) out for a wild night in his grandpa's Cadillac, which has a Sinatra cassette stuck in the tape player. This song plays as the two dance on the hood of the car.
This topped the charts 18 weeks after Frank's daughter Nancy had a #1 hit with "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'." Not long after, the pair would make history with "Somethin' Stupid" as the first father-daughter duo to have a #1 single (Ozzy and Kelly Osbourne would hit this mark in the UK with "Changes" in 2003).
Sinatra knocked The Beatles down a peg when this song hit #1 in the US and pushed "Paperback Writer" to #2. After one week, the group reclaimed their spot at the top. A month earlier, "Strangers in the Night" dominated the UK chart for three weeks before The Beatles' song took over.
This was released through Sinatra's Reprise Records, the label he founded in 1960. The song was the third #1 hit from the company, following Dean Martin's "Everybody Loves Somebody" and Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'."
Stan Cornyn, who would win Grammy Awards for Best Album Notes for September of My Years (1966) and Sinatra at the Sands (1967), wrote of Sinatra singing this song: "He leans into the front end of 'Strangers' and starts singing all the way to 'The End.' And there's no chop-choppy phrasing along the way. No dit-dit-dit. It comes out mmmmmmmmm all the way. If he runs our of gas on a phrase, which is a very rare bird for the man, then he runs out of gas two-and-a-half miles after anybody else would. He sings like he's got an extra tank of Texaco in his tummy."
Charles Pignone, Senior Vice President of Frank Sinatra Enterprises, talked about Sinatra's aversion to the song in a Songfacts interview: "Yes, he said it many times, he was not a fan of the song, but this is that innate ability of Frank of knowing what the audience wanted. He would do that again in concert, it would come in and out of his repertoire and a lot of times he would joke with the lyrics. He would say, 'I hate this song, I detest this song,' but he would do it because the people wanted to hear it."
Pignone explained that record producer Jimmy Bowen was the mastermind behind getting this song off the ground and on the airwaves before anyone else could: "They did the recording session, and then Jimmy actually pressed some acetates and sent them out to disc jockeys. He actually paid people or paid stewardesses in certain cities to take these acetates on a plane then drop them off at a city to disc jockeys because he was aware that Jack Jones had recorded the song, and it was going to come out in a specific time, and he wanted Frank to get airplay on it."
Although Ernie Freeman arranged the title track for Strangers in the Night, the rest of the album was arranged by Nelson Riddle.
In the mid-'90s, a Budweiser ad campaign featured a beer-stealing penguin who would sing the "dooby-dooby-doo" refrain before nabbing a pack of Bud Ice.
Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn July 19, 1966, 50 year-old Frank Sinatra married 20 year-old actress Mia Farrow in New York... At the time his "Strangers In The Night" was at #12 on Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart; just over three weeks earlier it had peaked at #1 {for 1 week} and it spent 15 weeks on the Top 100... During the calendar year of 1966 he had three other records on the Top 100; "It Was A Very Good Year" {#28}, "Summer Wind" {#25}, and "That's Life" {#4}... His daughter, Nancy, had five Top 100 records in 1966; "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" {#1}, "How Does that Grab You, Darlin'?" {#7}, "Friday's Child" {#36}, "In Our time" {#46}, and "Sugar Town" {#5}... Francis Albert Sinatra, aka 'Ole Blue Eyes', passed away at the age of 82 on May 14th, 1998... May he R.I.P.
Larry from Coral Springs, FlMy parents remembered me singing this a lot as a kid. I still like it.
Janetlee from Panama City, FlMy dad used to parody this song all the time by singing "Stranglers in the Night"! LOL! I've heard a few nice anecdotes about FS in the past, but for the most part, he's always MOSTLY sounded like a person with a chip on his shoulder-a major attitude problem! Not a person I would've wanted to be around.
Jozef from Toronto, Onas most of the time in history the original or the inventor receive little recognition if any the $$$ talks with the fame. Ivo Robic at that time was not famous or rich a great song re frank i heard from reliable source that Frank said the song is ridiculous stupid before he record it there you go .who got the credit ??? FF.
Reed from New Ulm, MnGreat backing track from Glen Campbell and other members of the "Wrecking Crew". and of coarse, ole Blue Eyes himself.
Ken from Louisville, KySinatra didn't care much for this song. He didn't hate it, but he didn't think it was anything special, hence the throwaway "scooby doobie doo" patter at the end. He was shocked when it reached #1 on the Billboard charts.
Rick from Tuscola, United Statesgreat song. hard to believe sinatra hit number one in 1966 which was the middle of the british invasion. then he teamed with his daughter to hit number one in 1967.
Ken from Louisville, KyChevy Chase does a parody of this song in the movie "Fletch". Instead of singing "Strangers in the night/Exchanging glances", Chevy sings "Strangers in the night/Exchanging clothing".
Steve from Fenton, MoIt seems like when Frank gets to the end of this song and is doing the adlib fadeout he gets about half way through it and decides he doesn't like it and just starts using gibberish like he thinks he needs to re do it. Great recording though.
