"Perfect Strangers" is a song by the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 hard rock

Hard rock

Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...

 band Deep Purple

Deep Purple

Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertford in 1968. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, although some band members believe that their music cannot be categorised as belonging to any one genre...

. It is the title track of their 1984 album Perfect Strangers

Perfect Strangers (album)

Perfect Strangers is the eleventh studio album by Deep Purple, released in October 1984. It represents the first album recorded by the reformed, the most successful and popular, 'Mark II' line-up....

.

The words tell of the sorrow of remaining "perfect strangers" after the end of a relationship. It is one of the few Deep Purple songs not to feature a guitar or organ solo. Band guitarist Ritchie Blackmore

Ritchie Blackmore

Richard Hugh "Ritchie" Blackmore is an English guitarist and songwriter, who was known as one of the first guitarists to fuse Classical music elements with rock. He fronted his own band Rainbow after leaving Deep Purple where he was unhappy because his favourite musical style wasn't adequately...

 has called it his favorite Deep Purple song.

Covers

It has recently been covered by Dimmu Borgir

Dimmu Borgir

Dimmu Borgir is a Norwegian black metal band from Oslo, Norway, formed in 1993. Dimmu borgir means "dark cities" or "dark castles/fortresses" in Icelandic, Faroese and Old Norse. The name is derived from a volcanic formation in Iceland, Dimmuborgir...

 on their latest album Abrahadabra

Abrahadabra (album)

Abrahadabra is Norwegian symphonic black metal band Dimmu Borgir's ninth studio album, released in 2010. The first single from the album, "Gateways", was released on August 20 in Europe and August 24 in North America. On September 14 a video for "Gateways" was released featuring Djerv front-woman,...

as a bonus track. It was also covered by progressive metal band Dream Theater

Dream Theater

Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Petrucci, John Myung, and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts. They subsequently dropped out of their studies to further concentrate on the band that would...

 on their EP A Change of Seasons

A Change of Seasons

-Credits:* James LaBrie – Vocals* John Myung – bass* John Petrucci – guitars* Mike Portnoy – drums* Derek Sherinian – keyboards-Chart performance:Billboard 200:* A Change of Seasons – #58UK Albums Chart...

and by hard rock vocalist Jorn Lande on his solo album Unlocking the Past

Unlocking the Past

Unlocking the Past is the fifth studio album by Jørn Lande.The album features covers of what Jorn states as his biggest musical influences, and as such, is composed mostly of classic hard rock and heavy metal acts such as Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Whitesnake and Kiss.All covers were recorded...

.

Personnel

• Ritchie Blackmore
  Ritchie Blackmore
  Richard Hugh "Ritchie" Blackmore is an English guitarist and songwriter, who was known as one of the first guitarists to fuse Classical music elements with rock. He fronted his own band Rainbow after leaving Deep Purple where he was unhappy because his favourite musical style wasn't adequately...
  
   - guitar
  Electric guitar
  An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
  
  
• Ian Gillan
  Ian Gillan
  Ian Gillan is an English rock music vocalist and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist for Deep Purple. During his career Gillan also fronted his own band, had a year-long stint as the vocalist for Black Sabbath, and sang the role of Jesus in the original recording of Andrew Lloyd...
  
   - vocals
• Roger Glover
  Roger Glover
  Roger David Glover is a Welsh bassist, songwriter, and record producer. Glover is best known as the bassist and lyricist for the hard rock band, Deep Purple.-Early career:...
  
   - bass
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  
• Jon Lord
  Jon Lord
  Jonathan Douglas "Jon" Lord is an English composer, pianist and Hammond organ player.Jon Lord, also known as 'Hammond Lord', is a classically trained piano player. He is recognised for his Hammond organ blues-rock sound and for his pioneering work in fusing rock and classical or baroque forms...
  
   - organ
  Organ (music)
  The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
  
  
• Ian Paice
  Ian Paice
  Ian Anderson Paice is an English musician, best known as the drummer of the English rock band Deep Purple. As of Jon Lord's departure in 2002, he is the only founding member of the band who never stopped performing with the group, and the only member to appear on every album the band has...
  
   - drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....