REMEMBER FOREIGNER?






Foreigner is a rock and roll band formed in Rochester, New York, USA in 1976 by veteran musicians Mick Jones and Ian McDonald (see 1976 in music). Despite accusations of formulaic commercialism, Foreigner's unique style of heavy metal with keyboard flourishes has racked up sales of over 50 million records worldwide to date.

The band is led by British journeyman rocker Mick Jones (former member of Nero and the Gladiators, Spooky Tooth, and The Leslie West Band) who in early 1976 met with ex-King Crimson member Ian McDonald and formed Foreigner with Lou Gramm and three other musicians who were all unknown at the time to form a sextet.

The band's debut album Foreigner sold more than four million copies in the United States and stayed in the Top Twenty for a year with such hits as "Feels Like the First Time", "Cold as Ice", and "Long Long Way From Home". Their sophomore effort, Double Vision, topped their previous selling 5 million records and spawned "Hot Blooded" and title track "Double Vision". The third album Head Games was also successful due to the thunderous "Dirty White Boy" and another title track hit "Head Games". 1980 brought personnel changes so that now that band was a quartet and Rick Wills played bass. The leaving members Gagliardi and Greenwood went on to the failed band Spys.

Foreigner's next album, their fourth and appropriately named 4, was their biggest hit containing "Jukebox Hero", "Waiting for a Girl Like You", and "Urgent". Their next album, Agent Provocateur, gave them their only #1 hit, a gospel-inspired ballad backed by the New Jersey Mass Choir, "I Want to Know What Love Is". The band released several more albums with moderate success, and in the late 1980s Jones and Gramm each put out solo efforts and the band dissolved. But by 1993, however, the two reunited, reforming Foreigner and producing a new album. The reformed band is still together and toured throughout the United States recently with Journey. In VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock", Foreigner ranked 86th. Foreigner today is a staple of classic rock stations, and they still maintain legions of fans who admire and adore their innovative arena rock anthems, which have had a major effect on music and culture in the United States.

In summer of 2005 the band reformed with Mick Jones as the only original member of the band, four other hired musicians, and Jason Bonham, son of the late John Bonham, on drums.




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