When one of the most successful rock bands of all time teamed up with one of the most successful producers of all time, the result was inevitable.
The band was Foreigner. The producer, Mutt Lange. And the album they made together turned into the biggest seller of Foreigner’s career.
It was the band’s fourth album, released in 1981 and titled simply 4.
In an interview with Outlaw magazine in 2019, Foreigner’s founder, guitarist and principal songwriter Mick Jones recalled the making of the 4 album and other key moments in the band’s career.
Foreigner’s self-titled debut album was released in 1977. Produced by Gary Lyons and John Sinclair, the album peaked at No.4 on the Billboard 200 and also yielded three hit singles in the US – Feels Like The First Time (No.4), Cold As Ice (No.6) and Long, Long Way from Home (No.20).
Jones said of that album’s success: “I hoped that it would be a good foundation and that the record company would pick up the option for a second album – very modest aspirations, really. But we just blasted in with platinum, then double platinum, triple, quadruple… And as soon as we were getting over that, the second album came out and sold even more.”
That second album, Double Vision, followed in 1978 and like its predecessor spawned three US hits with Hot Blooded (No.3), Double Vision (No.2) and Blue Morning, Blue Day (No.15). The album reached No.3.
Jones acted as co-producer on Double Vision alongside the band’s multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald and Fleetwood Mac producer Keith Olsen.
The album solidified Foreigner’s position in rock’s big league.
“A lot of people were waiting for us to trip up and blow it,” Jones said, “but we came through with that second album and that carved out a niche for us.”
Asked who he viewed as competition for his band back then, Jones replied: “I guess Boston and Journey, and Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles. It was a heady time. And certainly we were up there… flying with the Eagles!”
Foreigner’s third album was Head Games, released in 1979. It was produced by Jones and McDonald with another big name, Roy Thomas Baker, famed for his work with Queen and The Cars.
Head Games reached No.5 on the album chart although its singles were less successful. Dirty White Boy and the album’s title track reached the top 20 but Love On the Telephone and Women both bombed.
At this juncture it made sense for Foreigner to work with a new producer with fresh ideas – and in 1981 Mutt Lange was the hottest rock producer around.
Lange had done a great job with AC/DC’s 1979 album Highway To Hell, their first million seller.
And in 1980, following the death of AC/DC’s singer Bon Scott, Lange had produced the band’s comeback album Back In Black, recorded with new lead vocalist Brian Johnson.
Eventually, Back In Black would become the biggest selling rock album of all time.
In 1981, Foreigner’s 4, co-produced by Lange and Jones, was a runaway success.
As Jones told Outlaw: “We put ourselves under a lot of pressure making that record, but sometimes the best seems to come out in those circumstances.
“Mutt did bring a lot out of me, more than any other producer I’ve worked with. He insisted on hearing every little bit and piece I had, every idea. He really sort of invaded my territory, and he was relentless!
“But after a while I realised what he was doing. He was challenging me to come up with the goods and make the album as powerful as it could be.”
The first single from 4 was Urgent, a rock track written by Jones ad featuring a sax solo from Motown star Junior Walker. Urgent reached No.4 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The second single was Waiting For A Girl Like You, a beautiful ballad written by Jones with Foreigner’s singer Lou Gramm.
“That was the strongest emotion I ever had in writing a song,” Jones said. “My wife was expecting a child and I thought I was being led by this idea: we’re going to have a little girl. And it turned out to be a little boy!
“But that emotion was so powerful. I’d never before had that kind of feeling back from something I’d written, and it stayed that way all the way through the recording.
“Lou sang his vocal to a girl that just walked into the studio. Everybody thought she was with our group and she wasn’t, but Lou kind of fixated on her and the vocal was done in one take.
“The feeling in that song was so strong. Whenever I’d hear it I’d break down emotionally. It was kind of weird – very positive in the end, but very draining on me.”
Famously, Waiting For A Girl Like You stayed at No.2 on the Billboard chart for 10 weeks without ever reaching the top.
But Mick Jones and Foreigner finally got their No.1 in 1985 with another ballad, I Want To Know What Love Is.
“Those two songs are sort of linked in a way,” Jones said, “but they’re not about the same person. I thought they were at one point, but on further examination of myself… I thought, no.”
Jones said of his autobiographical songwriting: “The names remain anonymous. And yeah, I used to be embarrassed about it sometimes. But this stuff is real. You meet people in your life that have an effect on you.
“I’ve been married three times. I’ve been thought that pain and drama, and there’s a story to tell about it. And the moments that were painful – they tend to stick with you more than the good moments. They bring out emotion and a lot of people can relate to that.
“That’s what used to happen with me, before I became a writer. Carole King’s song, It’s Too Late – I really identified with every phrase as if it had been me in that situation.
“And that’s when I realised something about writing – a great deal of the success of writers and artists comes from the fact that those phrases can fit into so many different kinds of experience.”
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