Song · Queensryche
“Eyes of a Stranger” by Queensryche
From the album Operation: Mindcrime (1988)
“Eyes of a Stranger” by Queensryche appears on 8 radio countdowns from 3 stations between 1990 and 2021. It was first released in 1988 on the album Operation: Mindcrime. Its best result is #136 on the Z-Rock Top 1001 Songs of All-Time (1990).
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Operation: Mindcrime, Queensrÿche's 1988 story album, closes on "Eyes of a Stranger", the song that pulls the whole tale together in one last sweep. Chris DeGarmo and Geoff Tate wrote it, Peter Collins produced, and James "Jimbo" Barton mixed it after engineering with Paul Northfield.
It's a big, layered finale: DeGarmo and Michael Wilton stack electric, acoustic and 12-string guitars, Eddie Jackson and Scott Rockenfield drive the bottom end, Michael Kamen adds cello, and Tate sings lead, plays keyboards and even whistles, with a choir billed as the Moronic Monks of Morin Heights and spoken parts from Debbie Wheeler. Put out as a single in 1989, it became the band's first to chart on the US Mainstream Rock list, and it has stayed their stage staple: by April 2016 they had played it live over a thousand times, more than any other song.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
Hard Rock & Metal
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 136 | Z-Rock | Z-Rock Top 1001 Songs of All-Time (1990) | 1000 |
| 1994 | 241 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1994) | 1000 |
| 1995 | 188 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1995) | 1000 |
| 1996 | 300 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1996) | 1000 |
| 1998 | 314 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1998) | 1000 |
| 1999 | 298 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1999) | 998 |
| 2002 | 772 | KISW | KISW Top 999 of All Time (2002) | 999 |
| 2021 | 730 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '80s | 909 |
Also listed as: Eyes Of A Stranger; Eyes of A Stranger.
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