Deep Purple "Knocking At Your Back Door (Single & Video)"

"Knocking at Your Back Door" is a song by the British hard rock band Deep Purple, the first track of the album Perfect Strangers, which was released in September 1984. The song was written by Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan and Roger Glover. The track received heavy airplay at the time, playing on heavy rotation. It was used by the Seattle SuperSonics in their lineup intro during home games.

The song is lyrically about anal sex, as it uses various sexual innuendos throughout the song. Ian Gillan commented:

There's this guy named Redbeard, from a radio station down in Texas. He phoned me up after it had been played on every radio station in America and said, "Is this what I think it's about?" And I said, "Yeah." And he said, "It's amazing, every radio station in America is playing a song written about anal sex and they don't even realize what's going on." And I was like, well it's not in-your-face anal sex, it's just a joke. It just came about with the lyrics. It's no big deal. But it's a humorous thing and not meant to be offensive. And I think it was just an afterthought. It certainly wasn't what inspired the song.

The song, released as a seven-inch single and CD single with "Perfect Strangers" on the B-side, in October 1984. In Canada, the B-side of the single was the instrumental "Son of Alerik", while in Japan, Spain and the United States a version with "Wasted Sunsets" was released.

"Knocking at Your Back Door" was a permanent part of the band's live set until 1994 and sporadically since then. Live albums that include the track are: Nobody's Perfect (1988), In the Absence of Pink (1991), Come Hell or High Water (DVD, 1994), Live in Europe 1993 (2007), and Live at Montreux 2011 (2011)

Track list:

Side A

1. Knocking at Your Back Door 07:00   

Side B

1. Son of Alerik 10:02   

Total time:   17:02

Exclusive limited edition

"Son of Alerik" is a 10 minute instrumental jam from the sessions that was not on the album itself.

Alternate versions exist with the following B-Side songs "Wasted Sunsets", "Perfect Strangers", or "Not Responsible", possibly with an edited version of "Knocking at your Back Door" as side A.

In Canada, manufactured by Polygram Inc., and distributed by Polygram Distribution Inc., St-Laurent, QC, Canada. Made in Canada.