| "Stranger in My House" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Ronnie Milsap | ||||
| from the album Keyed Up | ||||
| B-side | "Is It Over" | |||
| Released | April 2, 1983 | |||
| Genre | Country rock, rock | |||
| Length | 4:11 | |||
| Label | RCA Nashville | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Mike Reid | |||
| Producer(s) | Tom Collins Ronnie Milsap | |||
| Ronnie Milsap singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Stranger in My House" is a song written by Mike Reid and recorded by American country music artist Ronnie Milsap. It was released in April 1983 as the first single from the album Keyed Up .
The song tells of a man who suspects his wife is fantasizing about being with a secret lover. It is mainly in the key of D minor, with some portions of the verses being in D Dorian due to the sixth tone being raised by a half-step. Milsap's vocal ranges exactly two octaves (from D3 to D5). The main chord pattern on the verses is Dm-C-G twice, followed by Gm-Dm-Gm-A; the chorus uses Dm-Gm-A twice and ends on a Dm chord. [1]
Milsap's 35th single to be released, the song immediately became a major hit as it peaked at No. 5 on the country chart and No. 8 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The song also went as high as No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart.
The song features a rock guitar solo from Bruce Dees. Some country stations edited this solo out of the song, [2] and a station in Denver, Colorado, refused to play the song, because its personnel opined that the song sounded like a Led Zeppelin song. That particular airplay lost from the Denver station likely kept the song from peaking at No 1. [3]
Reid would win the Grammy Award for Best Country Song category for this song in 1984.
A black-and-white music video for the single, directed by David Hogan, was also released. During the beginning of the video, a man is shown trespassing in the narrator's house as the blind singer plays his piano. During the climax, it shows his wife's imaginary lover playing an electric guitar as she performs an erotic dance to the solo. In the end, it shows detectives investigating the tape outline of an electric guitar.
| Chart (1983) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia (Kent Music Report) [4] | 55 |
| Canadian RPM Country Tracks | 1 |
| Canadian RPM Top Singles | 42 |
| US Hot Country Songs ( Billboard ) [5] | 5 |
| US Billboard Hot 100 [6] | 23 |
| US Adult Contemporary ( Billboard ) [7] | 8 |
Ronnie Lee Milsap is an American country music singer and pianist. He was one of country music's most popular and influential performers of the 1970s and 1980s. He became one of the most successful and versatile country "crossover" singers of his time, appealing to both country and pop music markets with hit songs that incorporated pop, R&B, and rock and roll elements. His biggest crossover hits include "It Was Almost Like a Song", "Smoky Mountain Rain", "(There's) No Gettin' Over Me", "I Wouldn't Have Missed It for the World", "Any Day Now", and "Stranger in My House". He is credited with six Grammy Awards and 35 number-one country hits, third to George Strait and Conway Twitty. He was selected for induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2014.
"Since I Don't Have You" is a song written and composed by Jackie Taylor, James Beaumont, Janet Vogel, Joseph Rock, Joe Verscharen, Lennie Martin, and Wally Lester. It was first a 1958 hit single for the doo-wop group the Skyliners on the Billboard Hot 100. Country music singer Ronnie Milsap had a hit with the song in 1991. American hard rock band Guns N' Roses also had some success in 1994 with their version of the song which reached the top 10 on the UK Singles Chart.
"Black Magic Woman" is a song written by British musician Peter Green, which first appeared as a single for his band Fleetwood Mac in 1968. Subsequently, the song appeared on the 1969 Fleetwood Mac compilation albums English Rose (US) and The Pious Bird of Good Omen (UK), as well as the later Greatest Hits and Vintage Years compilations.
"Love's Been A Little Bit Hard On Me" is a song written by Gary Burr and recorded by the American country-pop singer Juice Newton for her album Quiet Lies. The recording garnered Newton a Grammy nomination for Best Female Vocalist in the Pop category.
Keyed Up is the fifteenth studio album by country music star Ronnie Milsap, released in 1983. It featured the No. 5 country chart hit "Stranger in My House", plus the No. 1 country hits "Don't You Know How Much I Love You" and "Show Her".
"Make No Mistake, He's Mine" is a song written by Kim Carnes, recorded as a duet with Barbra Streisand in 1984. The duet was subsequently recorded as "Make No Mistake, She's Mine" by Ronnie Milsap and Kenny Rogers in 1987. Both versions of the song charted.
"Smoky Mountain Rain" is a song written by Kye Fleming and Dennis Morgan, and recorded by American country music singer Ronnie Milsap. It was released in September 1980 as the first single from his Greatest Hits compilation album. The single became one of his best-known songs.
"(There's) No Gettin' Over Me" is a song written by Walt Aldridge and Tom Brasfield, and recorded by American country music singer Ronnie Milsap. It was released in June 1981 as the first single from the album There's No Gettin' Over Me. Known by many fans by its less grammatically correct title "There Ain't No Gettin' Over Me" — the song's official title appears nowhere in the lyrics — the song became one of Milsap's biggest country and pop hits during his recording career.
"I Wouldn't Have Missed It for the World" is a song written by Charles Quillen, Kye Fleming and Dennis Morgan, and recorded by American country music singer Ronnie Milsap. It was released in October 1981 as the second single from the album There's No Gettin' Over Me. The song became one of his biggest hits in his recording career and came during the peak of his crossover success.
"Inside" is a song written by Mike Reid, and recorded by American country music singer Ronnie Milsap. It was released in November 1982 as the third single and title track from the album Inside. The song extended his early 1980s success as both a country and crossover artist when it reached its peak popularity in early 1983.
The discography of American country music singer Ronnie Milsap consists of 30 albums and 79 singles. Since releasing his first album in 1971, Milsap has had 40 number-one hits on the Billboard country chart and sold over 35 million albums. In addition, 26 of his US number-one hits reached number-one on the RPM Top Country Tracks chart in Canada; three songs that did not reach number-one in the US were number one in Canada; and two of his US number-one country hits also topped the US adult contemporary chart. As of 2000, he has recorded 7 gold albums, 1 platinum album, and 1 double-platinum album.
"Any Day Now" is a popular song written by Burt Bacharach and Bob Hilliard in 1962. It has been recorded by numerous artists over the years, including notable versions by Chuck Jackson in 1962, Alan Price in 1965, Elvis Presley in 1969, and Ronnie Milsap in 1982. The lyrics of this song predict the eventual demise of a romantic relationship the lyricist is in with an unnamed person whom the lyricist believes will get away one day and leave the lyricist with feelings of sadness and emptiness for the rest of his/her life.
"Lost in the Fifties Tonight ", a single released by country music singer Ronnie Milsap. It is a medley of "Lost in the Fifties Tonight" written by Mike Reid and Troy Seals and a cover of The Five Satins' 1956 hit "In the Still of the Night".
"Still Losing You" is a song written by Mike Reid, and recorded by American country music singer Ronnie Milsap. It was released in May 1984 as the first single from the album One More Try for Love.
There's No Gettin' Over Me is the thirteenth studio album by country music artist Ronnie Milsap, released in 1981 by RCA Records. The album produced two No. 1 hits for Milsap, including the title track, which also peaked at No. 2 on the Adult Contemporary chart and No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. "I Wouldn't Have Missed It For the World," the other #1 single, also reached No. 20 and No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary charts, respectively.
...In Black & White is the 11th solo studio album by American country artist Barbara Mandrell. The album was released in April 1982 on MCA Records and was produced by Tom Collins. It was Barbara Mandrell's first studio album in two years since the release of Love Is Fair.
"Show Her" is a song written by Mike Reid, and recorded by American country music artist Ronnie Milsap. It was released in October 1983 as the third single from the album Keyed Up. The song was Milsap's twenty-fifth number one country hit. The single went to number one for one week and spent a total of fourteen weeks on the country chart.
"Is It Raining at Your House" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Vern Gosdin. It was released in December 1990 as the second single from his compilation album 10 Years of Greatest Hits, but originally appeared on his 1987 album Chiseled in Stone. The song reached number 10 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart; it was Gosdin's last top 10 and top 40 single on the country charts. Gosdin wrote the song with Dean Dillon and Hank Cochran.
Greatest Hits, Vol. 3 is the third greatest hits collection by American country music artist Ronnie Milsap. It was released in 1991 by RCA Records. The album's only single, "L.A. to the Moon," peaked at #45 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart.
"How to Be a Country Star" is a song recorded by American country music group The Statler Brothers, written by group members Harold Reid and Don Reid. The song – a humorous, tongue-in-cheek advice song that names many of the top country music recording artists of the time, along with a number of classic country artists – was released in March 1979 as the first single from the album The Originals. The song eventually climbed to No. 7 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart that May, and also No. 18 on the Canadian RPM country singles chart.