“Perfect Strangers” by Deep Purple

"Perfect Strangers" is the title track of Deep Purple's 1984 comeback album and the first single from it in Britain. Ian Gillan sings it and wrote the words, which draw on Michael Moorcock's Elric books, and the writing credit also takes in Ritchie Blackmore and Roger Glover. Blackmore plays electric guitar, Glover bass, Jon Lord Hammond organ and keyboards and Ian Paice drums, with Glover producing and Nick Blagona engineering, and Polydor put it out.

The odd thing is what's missing: it's one of the few Deep Purple songs with no guitar solo, and yet Blackmore, a founding member, has called it his favourite of all their songs. As a single it stalled at 48 in Britain early in 1985, a modest showing next to the album's number 5.

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