The Stranger

Album: Lady Like (2020)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This piano-led power ballad finds Ingrid Andress having a conversation with her lover about fixing their failing relationship.

    You play the stranger, I'll play the girl at the bar
    The same place where all this got started
    Sometimes I wish I didn't know you at all
    So we could do it all over, fall all over each other again


    Andress calls on her man to hit the reset button. If only they could go back to being strangers, getting to know each other all over again, then they could repair their romance.
  • Andress wrote the song with songwriter Ryan Lafferty (Swon Brothers "This Side of Heaven"). The "More Hearts Than Mine" hitmaker explained to Apple Music: "The whole point of the song is acknowledging that it's kind of a tragic thing, but there's still hope, because I think love is a choice. Most love songs don't talk about how it does get a little stale if you don't work at your relationship, and that it's a completely normal emotion to feel."
  • Andress' songwriting buddy Sam Ellis produced the track and plays keys and bass. The Canadian also helped her pen "More Hearts Than Mine."
  • Andress told Apple Music that she originally wrote the song on a piano and then looked to build it up as she "wanted it to be driving," rather than a sad piano ballad. "Adding all the vocal stuff and the dynamism of it, and having it build and grow, it sounds more like a story that you're moving forward," she explained.

Comments: 1

  • Sanyu Helasy from Uganda WakisoI love ur music more so breaking more hearts than mine
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Carol Kaye

Carol KayeSongwriter Interviews

A top session musician, Carol played on hundreds of hits by The Beach Boys, The Monkees, Frank Sinatra and many others.

Corey Hart

Corey HartSongwriter Interviews

The Canadian superstar talks about his sudden rise to fame, and tells the stories behind his hits "Sunglasses At Night," "Boy In The Box" and "Never Surrender."

Lita Ford

Lita FordSongwriter Interviews

Lita talks about how they wrote songs in The Runaways, and how she feels about her biggest hit being written by somebody else.

Rosanne Cash

Rosanne CashSongwriter Interviews

Rosanne talks about the journey that inspired her songs on her album The River & the Thread, including a stop at the Tallahatchie Bridge.

Kevin Godley

Kevin GodleySongwriter Interviews

Kevin Godley talks about directing classic videos for The Police, U2 and Duran Duran, and discusses song and videos he made with 10cc and Godley & Creme.

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie Combination

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie CombinationSong Writing

In 1986, a Stephen King novella was made into a movie, with a classic song serving as title, soundtrack and tone.