Foreigner

Foreigner came together in New York City in 1976, and the name was a joke on the lineup: guitarist Mick Jones, drummer Dennis Elliott and multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald, late of King Crimson, were British, while singer Lou Gramm, keyboardist Al Greenwood and bassist Ed Gagliardi were American, so half the band would be foreigners wherever they played. Jones had the riffs and Gramm had a voice that could punch a hole through an arena roof.

The 1977 debut got them rolling with "Feels Like the First Time", "Cold as Ice" and "Long, Long Way from Home", slick, muscular rock with the hooks polished to a high shine. Double Vision in 1978 brought the cocksure strut of "Hot Blooded" and the title track, Rick Wills took over on bass in 1979, and Head Games kept the machine running.

4, in 1981, was the big one: 10 weeks at number one in America and a breakthrough in Britain, with the hard-charging "Urgent", the hushed "Waiting for a Girl Like You" and the fist-pumping "Juke Box Hero". Agent Provocateur, in 1984, gave them "I Want to Know What Love Is", their biggest hit, a towering ballad that topped the charts in the US, Britain, Canada and Australia. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted them in 2024.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.