Straight Between the Eyes

History

The band line-up was the same as had recorded the previous year's Difficult to Cure album, with the exception of David Rosenthal, who replaced Don Airey on keyboards.

The title allegedly came from a phrase from Jeff Beck, describing Jimi Hendrix to Blackmore.

The sleeve-art is by British artist Jeff Cummins and Hipgnosis. The original vinyl issue had the lyrics printed on the inner sleeve.

In an April 1982 interview with British rock magazine Kerrang!, Blackmore stated of "MISS Mistreated", "Well it's to avoid confusion that the 'Miss' is written three times bigger than the 'mistreated' but I expect we'll have someone who shall remain nameless coming up to us saying 'I wrote that song'!" That someone being David Coverdale, with whom Blackmore had co-written "Mistreated" for the 1974 Deep Purple album Burn. Blackmore had this issue with Coverdale previously when a rendition of "Mistreated" was included on the Rainbow live album On Stage.

Videos were shot for the songs "Stone Cold" and "Death Alley Driver", which featured Sega's video game Turbo. They were occasionally still aired on VH1's Metal Mania program, but have not been aired since 2005, they can be found on YouTube or on the bands "Final Cut" 1985 home video.

Tour

The tour would feature a giant pair of moving mechanical eyes as part of the stageset, with spotlights shining from the pupils. This is captured on the video release Live Between the Eyes. The tour, although extensive, did not include the UK, which rankled with British fans.

Track listing

All tracks written by Ritchie Blackmore, Joe Lynn Turner, and Roger Glover except where indicated.

Personnel

In other media

The song "Stone Cold" was featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories on the radio station Emotion 98.3.