"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 follow-up (both chronologically and thematically) to Shannon's top-ten hit "Keep Searchin' (We'll Follow the Sun)",[2] but was not as successful, reaching No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the USA[3][2] and No. 40 on the UK's Record Retailer chart.[4] "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)[5] and "Runaway" (534th).[6]
Howard DeWitt's biography of Shannon is titled "Stranger in Town" after the song.[7]
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