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"Love Is Strange" was a 1957 Top 40 hit for Mickey & Sylvia, originally released on Groove Records, a division of RCA. The song features a sinuous guitar riff and provocative verbal byplay between Mickey and Sylvia as well as a Latin American beat and a strong melodic hook. The lyrics consist of just eight lines, each of which uses the same basic tune, with some variances in the harmony. The role of the lead guitar, the bright recording technique, and the lush melody had an influence that can be clearly heard in many more modern rock songs, notably "Day Tripper" and other guitar-driven Beatles songs.

In addition to its musical quality, the song is remarkable as an instance of convergence. Although only a one-hit wonder, the recording was touched by, or touched, a large number of important people and musical trends, even down to a dispute over authorship.

Mickey was Mickey Baker, guitarist on dozens of rock and roll hits and many recordings, considered the "go to" session guitar player of the 1950s and early 1960s. Sylvia was Sylvia Vanderpool, formerly billed as Little Sylvia Vanderpool, who became in the 1980s the impresario behind Sugar Hill Records and a major force in the emergence of rap music. The song was written by Bo Diddley, (but credited to his then wife, Ethel Smith), and Jody Williams (Guitarist), who had developed the distinctive lead guitar riff. Williams had recorded the riff earlier on a song called "Billy's Blues" for Billy Stewart. Eventually the song, much more than just a riff, ended up being credited to Smith, Baker and Vanderpool. Buddy Holly recorded a version of the song and also adopted the riff and melody for his own "Words of Love".

In 1967, the duo Peaches and Herb had Top 40 success with their own cover version of the song. Sonny and Cher also covered the song in 1964. Paul McCartney sang it in 1971. Also in 1998 German synth-pop band Wolfsheim did a cover of the song for their EP Once in a Lifetime.

It was also the title cut to a 1990 album by Kenny Rogers. His version (sung in duet with Dolly Parton) reached the U.S. country singles top forty.

• The song was featured in the landmark 1972 adult film Deep Throat.
• The song was also used in a famous scene in the 1973 film Badlands, starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. In the scene it is featured in, the two main characters are seen dancing to the song, which is playing on their portable radio.
• A reference to the Badlands scene would be included in the Kevin Smith film Dogma (it is known that this was a reference to this particular scene because later in Dogma, one character calls another "Red", a nickname in Badlands) in which the song is playing on a radio in a diner.
• Smith uses the song again in Episode 3 of Clerks: The Animated Series
• In the 1987 cult classic, Dirty Dancing, this song is lip-synced and danced to by the main characters played by Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey in one of the most famous scenes. It is reported that Swayze and Grey were simply messing around before the real scene was shot and were practising Mickey and Sylvia's lyrics, but it was so well-done that director Emile Ardolino kept it as the real scene.

Mickey's famous line "How do you call your loverboy?" is referenced in the New York Dolls song "Trash" and the Lou Reed song "Beginning of a Great Adventure".