[Juke Box Heroes] -- 40 years ago today, Foreigner released 4, also known as Foreigner 4. The album's title had a dual purpose: It indicated the band's fourth studio album, and it represented the band's new status as a quartet. Various session players helped with the recording process, or on tour, but the band's primary members were Lou Gramm (lead vocals), Mick Jones (keyboards, guitars), Rick Wills (bass), and Dennis Elliott (drums). This four-person lineup is the one that endures in my memory when I think of Foreigner even though I did have Foreigner's previous three records, or at least 45s of singles from those albums.
While their first three records had helped establish Foreigner as something of a top AOR band and headliner, not to mention a commercial success with platinum sales, 4 was the break-through record they had been trying to release. Maybe some of that can be attributed to "Mutt" Lange on production, maybe some of it was due to a streamlining of songwriting efforts. Whatever the case, 4 launched the band into even greater success. The album held the #1 position on the Billboard album chart for 10 weeks, and it spawned multiple hit singles, including two entries in the #1 position on the Mainstream Rock chart: "Urgent" and "Waiting for a Girl Like You." I do like both of those tracks, but my favorite song on this album has to be "Juke Box Hero" which peaked in the #3 slot of the Mainstream Rock chart.
Foreigner never quite equaled the commercial or critical success of 4. The embedded playlist below has all 10 tracks of the original release as well as two bonus tracks from the 2002 release, but it has only one of the original music videos (the one for "Urgent"). If you want to see Foreigner's original music videos for the five singles, visit this 40th anniversary post from 93.7 The River.
Flashback: Foreigner 4 (1981)
That's all till next week. Dedicated 80s-philes can find more flashbacks in the Prophet or Madman archives or via Bookended's 80s Flashback tag. As always, your comments are welcome on today's, or any other, flashback post. And if you like what I'm doing here, please share the link with your friends. If, however, you don't like the flashback, feel free to share it with your enemies.
I'll see you in seven!
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