4
	Produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange and Mick Jones
	Released on July 1981
	US CHART POSITION #1 . . . PLATINUM RECORD (9/18/81), 6x PLATINUM (8/29/91) . . . UK CHART POSITION #4
	Find it at GEMM
SD 16999 cover [high resolution photo]

T he thought of two teenagers fumbling around to the sounds of “Waiting For A Girl Like You” is enough to turn me off to Foreigner 4-ever, but even I have to admit that this is remarkable product. The title is one of those whittle piggy puns: the band had been reduced to a quartet, this was their fourth album, there are four levels of hell where this album would be considered cruel punishment. Actually, I’m just grousing at the luck they had: “Urgent” and “Juke Box Hero” are brilliant. Really. “Waiting For A Girl Like You” is a fine ballad too. Er, really. But the rest of the record is filler; filler that just happened to be so palatable to Americans that it produced a Top 40 hit (“Break It Up”) and a Top 100 single (“Luanne”). Amazing. If the lyrical concerns are centered on troubled days and rock nights (“if,” he writes!), it resonated with the core audience of testosterone-laden teens and the ladies they loved. But there was a high-mindedness at work on songs like “Starrider” and “Tramontane” not evident on 4. Of course, to my knowledge producer Mutt Lange is only acquainted with the first three letters of “prog” and probably figured he was doing starriders a favor by making “I’m Gonna Win” sound a little like “Kashmir.” The achievements of four are twofold: the twin spires of studio rock perfection (“Urgent,” “Juke Box Hero”) and the ability to turn flat ideas (“Woman In Black,” “Break It Up”) into something of substance. Keeping with the counting theme, I’ll credit three reasons why the band can pull this off: Mick Jones is a remarkably succinct guitarist, Lou Gramm is an incredible vocalist and the production touches (synthesizers, chorused vocals) are spot on. Unfortunately, Foureigner (the four-headed hydra) was soon to become an animal of legend, not to be seen again for four years, when it emerged with the mild (and merely triple platinum, pphhshaw) Agent Provocateur. Thus you might draw the line at classic Foreigner after 4, which is fine, but I wouldn’t draw it a minute earlier.

SD 16999 back cover	SD 16999 lyric sleeve

TRACK LISTING

1. NIGHT LIFE    (Mick Jones/Lou Gramm)    3:48
2. JUKE BOX HERO    (Lou Gramm/Mick Jones)    4:18
3. BREAK IT UP    (Mick Jones)    4:11
4. WAITING FOR A GIRL LIKE YOU    (Mick Jones/Lou Gramm)    4:49
5. LUANNE    (Lou Gramm/Mick Jones)    3:11
6. URGENT    (Mick Jones)    4:29
7. I'M GONNA WIN    (Mick Jones)    4:51
8. WOMAN IN BLACK    (Mick Jones)    4:42
9. GIRL ON THE MOON    (Mick Jones/Lou Gramm)    3:49
10. DON'T LET GO    (Mick Jones/Lou Gramm)    3:48
    
    CD reissue bonus tracks
    
11. JUKE BOX HERO (NEARLY UNPLUGGED)
12. WAITING FOR A GIRL LIKE YOU (NEARLY UNPLUGGED)

CREDITS

DENNIS ELLIOTT -- drums, background vocals
LOU GRAMM -- lead vocals, percussion
MICK JONES -- lead guitar, keyboards, background vocals
RICK WILLS -- bass guitar, background vocals
Tom Dolby -- main synthesizers
Larry Fast -- sequential synthesizer
Michael Fonfara -- keyboard textures (6,9)
"Mutt" Lange -- background vocals
Ian Lloyd -- background vocals
Bob Mayo -- additional keyboard textures (3,4)
Hugh McCracken -- slide guitar (9)
Mark Rivera -- saxophone, backing vocals
Jr. Walker -- saxophone solo (6)
Tony Platt -- basic track engineer
Dave Wittman -- chief engineer
Bob Defrin -- art direction

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