#21: "4" by Foreigner

#21—13th birthday gift

Best song: Waiting For a Girl Like You
Notable tracks: Urgent, Juke Box Hero, Break It Up
Released: 1981
Chart Peak: #1

Foreigner is one of those eighties bands that you hardly think of until you hear them on the radio, then you remember just how really good they were. The real genius behind the band was British guitarist Mick Jones, with American vocalist Lou Gramm fronting the band as lead singer. Their most successful album is today's #21 favorite from my LP collection.

I was turned on to Foreigner at first by the success of their first single from the album, "Urgent," which features on of the most memorable saxophone solos of the era. If memory serves me correct, I think this album was a birthday present from childhood friend Chuck Mickey. (Thanks, Chuck—I still have it!)

Of course, the real treasure on this album is the single "Waiting For a Girl Like You," which I would easily count as one of the top singles of the 1980s. It would almost certainly be in my own top 25 best singles, and I would rank it just a notch below the band's later #1 hit in 1984 (and far and away their best song) "I Wanna Know What Love Is," a tremendous song, an absolute, undisputed classic, but unfortunately not on this album.

Some interesting liner note information from this album: main synthesizers in the studio were played by "Tom Dolby," who would go on to one-hit wonder immortality with "She Blinded Me With Science." The album itself was co-produced by Mick Jones at Mutt Lange, who before he was famous as the ex-Mr. Shania Twain was the producer of Def Leppard's biggest albums of the eighties. Something tells me Def Leppard is yet to come on this little countdown...

Meanwhile, enjoy the best song from "4":

(sorry, just the song—no video available)

Hey, it's almost Christmas—the season for giving—so here's the video for "I Wanna Know What Love Is." I know it's not on this album, but it's too good of both a song and a video to pass up. You're welcome!