Album · Foreigner
4 by Foreigner
4 is an album by Foreigner, released in 1981. 3 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 162 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Jukebox Hero”, on 91 lists with a best position of #6.
4, Foreigner's fourth album, came out on Atlantic in July 1981, and the title does double duty: fourth record, and a band slimmed from six members down to four. With Al Greenwood and Ian McDonald gone, the core was Lou Gramm on lead vocals, Mick Jones on guitar, Dennis Elliott on drums and Rick Wills on bass, with Mutt Lange producing. The hard rock of the early records gets sanded and buffed here into something broader and friendlier to pop radio, and it arrived just as MTV switched on that August.
It hits with real muscle when it wants to and melts when it needs to, and the singles did the rest: "Urgent", "Waiting for a Girl Like You" and "Juke Box Hero" all became hits. The album sat at number one in America for 10 weeks, sold over six million copies there, and finally broke the band in Britain too.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from 4 on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jukebox Hero#218 of all time | 91 | #6 | – | 1981–2026 | |
| 2 | Urgent | 65 | #18 | – | 1981–2026 | |
| 3 | Waiting For A Girl Like You | 6 | #142 | – | 1982–2024 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.