Perfect Strangers by Deep Purple

Perfect Strangers, Deep Purple's 11th studio album, landed on Polydor on 29 October 1984: their first studio record in nine years, and the first from the Mark II lineup in 11. Deep Purple had folded in July 1976, so the reunion meant raiding other outfits. Ritchie Blackmore and Roger Glover came over from Rainbow, Ian Gillan from Black Sabbath, Jon Lord from Whitesnake and Ian Paice from Gary Moore's band, with Glover producing.

The chemistry snaps right back, Lord's organ and Blackmore's guitar circling like old sparring partners, Gillan howling over the top and Paice keeping everything swinging hard. The old tensions came back too: Gillan and Glover wanted the songwriting split five ways as in the early '70s, Blackmore refused, and only "Nobody's Home" and "Not Responsible", a bonus on CD and cassette, carry all five names. It became the reunited lineup's biggest success.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.