"Stranger in the House" is a song written by English musician Elvis Costello.
[1] Costello recorded an earlier solo version which surfaced as a free 7" single with the first 1000 copies of his second album This Year's Model which was released in the United Kingdom in March 1978.
[2] According to Holly Jones-Warren's liner notes to the 2005 Legacy Records reissue of My Very Special Guests, Costello wrote the song specifically with Jones in mind, with the new wave star stating, "George Jones was my guiding light whenever I wrote in the country idiom".
[4] Perone states that the song demonstrates that "Costello understood the country genre musically and lyrically," explaining that "Costello's character equates his home with a transient hotel, as he explains his sense of disconnection and alienation from his family; this rings true as a metaphor that could easily be expected in an American country song.
[4] Rolling Stone critic Dave Marsh described the song as a "lovely but bizarre country oddity.