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Music / Foreigner (Band)
aka: Foreigner

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These "Hot Blooded" "Juke Box Hero"es are "Urgent"ly "Waiting for a Girl Like You".note 
For the science-fiction novels, see Foreigner (1994).

I want to know what love is,
I want you to show me,
I want to feel what love is,
I know you can show me.
"I Want to Know What Love Is"

A British-American rock band originating in The '70s and The '80s, Foreigner was one of several Hard Rock bands (along with with groups like Journey and Survivor) that gained fame in the AOR scene during the early 1980s. The group's mainstays were English guitarist Mick Jones (not that one) and American lead vocalist Lou Gramm, with a rotating cast of other musicians. Since Gramm left in 2003, Jones is the only founding member still with the group.

The group had its greatest success with a string of seven multi-platinum albums between 1977 and 1987, and had hit singles with songs including "Cold as Ice", "Juke Box Hero" and the ballads "I Want to Know What Love Is" and "Waiting for a Girl Like You". While members have come and gone, the band continues to tour today, often sharing the stage with fellow AOR stars such as Journey, Styx and Chicago.

Discography

  • Foreigner (1977)
  • Double Vision (1978)
  • Head Games (1979)
  • 4 (1981)
  • Agent Provocateur (1984)
  • Inside Information (1987)
  • Unusual Heat (1991)
  • Mr. Moonlight (1994)
  • Can't Slow Down (2009)

"Trope Box Heroes!":

  • Bilingual Bonus: Their instrumental "Tramontane" is a close Italian variation on the group's name. note 
  • Gospel Choirs Are Just Better: The New Jersey Mass Choir can be heard singing in the background of "I Want to Know What Love Is" and also appeared in the song's music video.
  • Gratuitous French: During the Fade Out of "Girl on the Moon", the background vocalists can be heard singing "Fille sur la Lune" (the literal translation of the song's title) twice.
  • Lighter and Softer: It began with one song from Double Vision, and then their 80s albums became much softer than their older 70s recordings.
  • Meaningful Name: The band was named for the fact that half of the original line-up was American and the other half British. In the words of Mick Jones, "no matter what country we're in, at least half of us would be foreigners".
  • Ode to Intoxication: "Double Vision" is sung from the perspective of an alcoholic and/or drug addict who is unrepentant about the problems his habit causes, and asks only for someone to "fill [his] eyes with that double vision".
  • Power Ballad: They recorded several. "I Want to Know What Love Is" is a particularly famous example. That song has lately become a Black Sheep Hit or Old Shame for the band, as they've admitted to wishing they never recorded it at all.
  • Pun-Based Title: Their hit album 4 was named after the amount of band members at the time (Gramm, Jones, Elliott, and Wills), as well as being their 4th studio album.
  • Record Producer: Starting with Head Games, Mick Jones produced all of the group's albums in collaboration with another producer (most famously, Mutt Lange co-produced the number one album 4).
  • Rhyming with Itself: From "Hot Blooded":
    You don't have to read my mind
    To know what I have in mind
  • Single Malt Vision: What "Double Vision" is about: drinking until you can't see straight.
  • Telephone Song: "Love on the Telephone" is about nervously maintaining a long-distance relationship.
  • Uncommon Time: "The Beat of My Heart" (from Inside Information) goes 6/4 for most of the chorus, save a brief soujourn into 7/4.
  • What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: "I Want to Know What Love Is" is about the protagonist wanting a partner to help them understand and feel love.

Alternative Title(s): Foreigner

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