“Hot Blooded” by Foreigner

"Hot Blooded" came roaring off Foreigner's second album, Double Vision, as a single in June 1978, and it was born the way good hard rock riffs often are, by accident. Mick Jones was running through riff after riff at his apartment when Lou Gramm heard this one, stopped him cold and started singing over it; the chorus came first, the verses after, and cracking the title had them bouncing off the walls.

It's pure strut, Jones's electric guitar lurching and Gramm leering over the top, with Ian McDonald, Al Greenwood, Ed Gagliardi and Dennis Elliott behind them and Keith Olsen co-producing with Jones and McDonald. Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times heard it as a rock star's macho come-on. It climbed to number three on the Billboard Hot 100, went platinum, and later became the theme for truTV's Tacoma FD.

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