Stranger in Town (Del Shannon song)

"Stranger in Town" is a 1965 song by Del Shannon. Written by Shannon, it is the opening track on One Thousand Six-Hundred Sixty-One Seconds of Del Shannon.[1] It was released as a single, a followup (both chronologically and thematically) to Shannon's top-ten hit "Keep Searching (We'll Follow the Sun)",[2] but was not as successful, reaching #30 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the USA[3][2] and #40 in the UK. "Stranger in Town" was Shannon's last top 40 hit of the 1960s.[2]

“ "Stranger in Town"... it's one long bleat of terror, the singer and his lover pursued by some unnameable person for reasons just beyond the fringe of rational understanding. ”
— Dave Marsh, The Heart of Rock & Soul[3]

Dave Marsh, in his 1989 book The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made, ranked "Stranger in Town"' as the 327th best rock or soul single to that date,[3] ahead of Shannon's bigger hits "Keep Searching" (371st in Marsh's book)[4] and "Runaway" (534th).[5]

Howard DeWitt's biography of Shannon is titled "Stranger in Town" after the song.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Elder, Bruce. One Thousand Six-Hundred Sixty-One Seconds of Del Shannon at AllMusic. Retrieved April 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 Unterberger, RIchie. Stranger in Town at AllMusic. Retrieved April 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 Marsh, Dave (1989). The Heart of Rock & Soul. Plume. p. 229. ISBN 978-0452263055. Retrieved April 24, 2015.
  4. ↑ Marsh 1989, p. 255.
  5. ↑ Marsh 1989, p. 353.
  6. ↑ DeWitt, Howard; DeWitt, Dennis (2001). Stranger in Town: The Musical Life of Del Shannon. Kendall Hunt. ISBN 978-0787288549.
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