Post by erik on May 13, 2023 13:11:32 GMT -5
One of country music's foremost pop crossover artists of the late 70's and early 80's, Ronnie Milsap is in this week's Pop Music Hits Spotlight with a rock-edged song of paranoia.
STRANGER IN MY HOUSE (Ronnie Milsap; RCA; 1983)—Though he professed himself to be a country artist through and through, North Carolina-born Ronnie Milsap had a vocal and piano style that borrowed as much from pop, rock, and R&B. This ability of his, despite the fact that, like Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles, he was blind, gave him some serious crossover hits between 1977 and 1983. Some of that experience came about by having played an uncredited role on the sessions held by legendary Memphis producer Chips Moman for Elvis on the King’s landmark album From Elvis In Memphis in 1969. With this background, in the fall of 1982, Milsap recorded a song that had some fairly eerie parallels to Elvis’ landmark 1969 classic “Suspicious Minds”. Written by future country singer and songwriter Mike Reid, “Stranger In My House” was a song that belonged in the tradition of “Suspicious Minds” because its theme of a man who isn’t certain that his wife hasn’t somehow fallen in love with another, and is thus now in a state of paranoia, had a decided rock bent to it in a way that most of his other pop/country crossover hits never had. In part because of this (though with arguably ridiculous rationalizing behind it), a country station in Denver refused to add it onto its playlists. “Stranger In My House” nevertheless became a #5 country hit, a #8 Adult Contemporary hit, and a #23 hit on the Hot 100 in May 1983, remaining one of Milsap’s most popular records. Though his pop crossover appeal faded as country went more traditional and pop went into its MTV phase, Milsap’s success had nevertheless been solidified for good.
STRANGER IN MY HOUSE (Ronnie Milsap; RCA; 1983)—Though he professed himself to be a country artist through and through, North Carolina-born Ronnie Milsap had a vocal and piano style that borrowed as much from pop, rock, and R&B. This ability of his, despite the fact that, like Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles, he was blind, gave him some serious crossover hits between 1977 and 1983. Some of that experience came about by having played an uncredited role on the sessions held by legendary Memphis producer Chips Moman for Elvis on the King’s landmark album From Elvis In Memphis in 1969. With this background, in the fall of 1982, Milsap recorded a song that had some fairly eerie parallels to Elvis’ landmark 1969 classic “Suspicious Minds”. Written by future country singer and songwriter Mike Reid, “Stranger In My House” was a song that belonged in the tradition of “Suspicious Minds” because its theme of a man who isn’t certain that his wife hasn’t somehow fallen in love with another, and is thus now in a state of paranoia, had a decided rock bent to it in a way that most of his other pop/country crossover hits never had. In part because of this (though with arguably ridiculous rationalizing behind it), a country station in Denver refused to add it onto its playlists. “Stranger In My House” nevertheless became a #5 country hit, a #8 Adult Contemporary hit, and a #23 hit on the Hot 100 in May 1983, remaining one of Milsap’s most popular records. Though his pop crossover appeal faded as country went more traditional and pop went into its MTV phase, Milsap’s success had nevertheless been solidified for good.