Songfacts®:

• This song was written and recorded before Sharon Jones was diagnosed with bile-duct cancer, but it subsequently took on a new meaning. She explained to Relix magazine: "No matter what kind of relationship you get into, you feel like a stranger to happiness if it never comes. But now that song has a new meaning. After we recorded 'Stranger to My Happiness,' my happiness was that we were going to go on the road and the album was coming out, but then, I had to go away because of my cancer."
  
  "Now, I feel like a stranger to my happiness," she continued. "We did a video for it. I'm bald and I'm standing there with a shiny dress—it has a wedding band theme. I didn't want to do the video at first. I look all pale, but you know what? It's a great video. My happiness is coming back now, too, because I still have some chemo to go but I'm ready to get back out on the road."