Nosferatu is an album by Hugh Cornwell of the Stranglers and Robert Williams, drummer in Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band.

Guest musicians on the album include keyboardist Ian Underwood from Frank Zappa's band and guitarist David Walldroop.

Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh of the band Devo play on the song "Rhythmic Itch", and "Wrong Way Round" features Ian Dury as a fairground barker (listed as "Duncan Poundcake" on the album credits).

[5] Hugh Cornwell was advised to start a solo career in case of the Stranglers breaking up due to the end of the punk-rock scene.

As the 1922 film Nosferatu had been a silent movie originally, Cornwell decided that "a good starting place would be to try to approximate a soundtrack for it,"[7] visualizing it as "an amazing vehicle for emotional music".

[7] Recording from late December into January 1979, they continued the sessions in March and April after a two month break due to Cornwell's touring commitments with the Stranglers.

"[7] Various guests from the Los Angeles area were invited in to play: woodwind and keyboard player Ian Underwood from Frank Zappa's the Mothers of Invention, Devo's Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh, and Williams' guitarist friend David Walldroop.

"There was one night where the entire studio was filled with percussion instruments like tympanies, tubular bells, tamatoms, gongs, bongos, congas, and timbales," Williams said.

[7] An additional track, "Grinding the Gears", recorded at the same sessions, was released on Robert Williams' first solo album Late One Night in 1982.

[11] The album is dedicated to the memory of actor Max Schreck, who played the lead role as the vampire Count Orlok in the 1922 film.

"[7] "Big Bug" is about the personal armoured train of Leon Trotsky,[12][7] and "Wrong Way Round" is about a girl built upside down: "A macabre and grotesque portrait of a circus freak," as stated in the album's liner notes.

"[16] Robert Endeacott, on the other hand, in his 2014 book Peaches: A Chronicle of The Stranglers 1974-1990, called the album "pretty bloody hot and startlingly original.