Within hours of final mixing, Bowen sent acetates of the song to key radio stations —by private planes. The extravagance paid off, Concord | Independent Music
: The song was first offered to the film's lead actress, Melina Mercouri, who turned it down because she felt it required a male voice. Frank Sinatra - Strangers In The Night
: Music publisher Hal Fine recruited Charles Singleton and Eddie Snyder to write English lyrics. They drew inspiration from a scene in the film where two characters fall in love after a chance encounter at a bar. Within hours of final mixing, Bowen sent acetates
: At the 1967 Grammy Awards, the song won Record of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance . Arranger Ernie Freeman also won for Best Arrangement Accompanying a Vocalist or Instrumentalist. They drew inspiration from a scene in the
: The famous "doo-be-doo-be-doo" scatting during the song's fade-out was improvised by Sinatra in the studio. CBS executive Fred Silverman later cited this scatting as the inspiration for the name of the cartoon character Scooby-Doo .
Before "Strangers in the Night," Sinatra hadn't seen a No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 in 11 years.
Despite his personal distaste, the track became a cultural juggernaut, earning multiple Grammy Awards and marking Sinatra's return to the top of the charts during the height of the rock 'n' roll era. The Unlikely Origin: From Movie Score to Pop Standard