50 Fun Facts About Foreigner

Foreigner took the title "Double Vision" from a TV report on an injured goalie in which sport?

Hockey gave the song its name: Lou Gramm kept a small TV in his vocal booth and heard announcers say Rangers goalie John Davidson was seeing double after a hit.

A session keyboardist joined Foreigner's album 4 believing he had been called by Mick Jones of which punk band?

The Clash had its own Mick Jones, so the young synth player assumed the London punks wanted him and only later learned the call came from the Englishman who founded Foreigner.

Mick Jones has said Foreigner's 1979 single "Dirty White Boy" was written about which rock and roll pioneer?

Elvis Presley was, in Jones's words, the dirty white boy who changed the shape of music. The single reached number 12 in the US as the lead release from Head Games.

Which Olivia Newton-John hit kept Foreigner's "Waiting for a Girl Like You" at number two for nine straight weeks?

Physical held the top spot for ten weeks, and when it finally slipped, Hall & Oates jumped over Foreigner, leaving the ballad a runner-up for a tenth week.

Which singer's 2009 cover of Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is" topped Brazil's airplay chart for 27 weeks?

Mariah Carey recorded it for her album Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, and a place on the soundtrack of a hit Brazilian telenovela kept it at number one for half a year.

Which future Hollywood director, then making music videos, shot the clip for Foreigner's 1987 single "Say You Will"?

David Fincher made the clip years before directing Fight Club and The Social Network. The single was one of Foreigner's last two US top-ten hits.

Which hit-making producer, the stepson of Foreigner's Mick Jones, co-produced the band's 2009 album Can't Slow Down?

Mark Ronson grew up with Jones as his stepfather after the guitarist married his mother, Ann Dexter-Jones, and he went on to win Grammys for Rehab and Uptown Funk.

Which 1977 Foreigner hit, driven by a pounding piano riff, was the first song Mick Jones wrote on piano?

Cold as Ice was a late replacement for a rejected track, and its vocals were finished in an all-night session while a blizzard buried the city outside.

Which Foreigner song follows a fan shut out of a sold-out concert who buys a guitar and finds fame himself?

Juke Box Hero merged two unfinished ideas, one from Mick Jones and one from Lou Gramm, who later borrowed the title for his autobiography.

Foreigner's Mick Jones played "I Want to Know What Love Is" at a 2007 London tribute headlined by which reunited band?

Led Zeppelin reunited for one night to honour label founder Ahmet Ertegun, with Jason Bonham, Foreigner's drummer in those years, filling his late father's seat.

Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is" ended the US number-one run of which Madonna hit in February 1985?

Like a Virgin had ruled the US chart since late December when the ballad displaced it, giving Foreigner its only American number-one single.

Which charity supergroup did Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is" knock off the UK number-one spot in 1985?

Band Aid had held the top spot for five weeks over the holidays before the ballad took over in mid-January and stayed for three weeks.

Which gospel group sang the soaring backing vocals on Foreigner's 1984 ballad "I Want to Know What Love Is"?

New Jersey Mass Choir members also appear in the video, and the group soon released its own version of the song, which reached the R&B singles chart.

Which Broadway star of Dreamgirls sang backing vocals on Foreigner's 1984 ballad "I Want to Know What Love Is"?

Jennifer Holliday, who originated Effie White in the 1981 musical and won a Grammy for its showstopper, added her voice alongside the gospel singers.

Which 1984 Foreigner album, the band's only UK chart-topper, opened its campaign with "I Want to Know What Love Is"?

Agent Provocateur took nine months to record after its first producer walked out, and it arrived more than three years after the band's previous studio album.

Foreigner's Mick Jones wrote a new bridge for which Australian singer's cover of "I Want to Know What Love Is"?

Tina Arena recorded it for her album In Deep with Jones himself producing, and the single went gold in France.

The 1981 release of Foreigner's album 4 came just weeks before the launch of which cable channel?

MTV went on air that August, a month after the album appeared, and the record went on to spend ten weeks at number one in the US.

Which 1978 Foreigner hit, a US top-three single, later became the theme song of the comedy series Tacoma FD?

Hot Blooded began as one of many riffs Mick Jones was trying out at his apartment, until Lou Gramm stopped him and started singing along.

In which city did Mick Jones form Foreigner in 1976, after the collapse of his previous band left him stranded there?

New York became home base when manager Bud Prager lent the English guitarist rehearsal space near his office, where the six-piece took shape.

Which soul saxophonist, in town for a gig, recorded the famous solo on Foreigner's 1981 hit "Urgent"?

Junior Walker, the voice and sax behind the Motown hit Shotgun, happened to be performing nearby during the sessions and later recreated the solo on stage as the band's guest.

Foreigner's Mick Jones produced Storm Front, a chart-topping 1989 album, for which singing pianist?

Billy Joel got his third US number-one album from the partnership, along with the rapid-fire history lesson of We Didn't Start the Fire.

Mick Jones of Foreigner co-produced 5150, the first album which hard-rock band made with singer Sammy Hagar?

Van Halen scored its first US number-one album with the record, which introduced a new frontman after David Lee Roth's exit.

Mick Jones played acoustic guitar on Dark Horse, a 1974 solo album by which former Beatle, before forming Foreigner?

Harrison's guest list for the album also included Gary Wright, the keyboardist Jones had played beside in two earlier bands.

Foreigner's Mick Jones co-wrote "Bad Love", from the 1989 album Journeyman, with which English guitar great?

Eric Clapton won the Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance with the song, which Jones helped him tidy up from ideas he already had.

Mick Jones and Lou Gramm patched up Foreigner while confined to a hotel by a curfew during which city's riots?

Los Angeles was under a dusk-to-dawn curfew, so the estranged pair sat in the Sunset Marquis with armed guards on the roof and agreed to work together again.

Foreigner recorded the album 4 at Electric Lady, the studio commissioned in 1968 by which guitar legend?

Jimi Hendrix spent only about ten weeks recording there before his death, yet the studio went on to host decades of hit albums.

Which band, known for "Come Sail Away", toured with Foreigner in 2010, 2014 and 2024?

Styx had already shared a 2007 tour with Foreigner, and the pairing became a regular fixture, with guests such as Kansas and Don Felder joining the bill.

Foreigner's single "Double Vision" stalled at number two in 1978 behind "MacArthur Park", sung by which disco star?

Donna Summer's disco remake of a Richard Harris ballad kept the rocker in second place for two weeks, Foreigner's highest chart position to that point.

Foreigner's "Head Games" plays as Johnny Lawrence drives and reminisces in the first episode of which streaming series?

Cobra Kai opens with the washed-up former bully of The Karate Kid, and the 1979 track scores his drunken drive down memory lane.

Foreigner co-founder Ian McDonald had earlier helped found which progressive rock band, playing on its 1969 debut album?

King Crimson's first album leaned on McDonald's Mellotron and woodwinds, and it is often credited with launching the progressive rock era.

Which name appeared on Foreigner's first demo tape before the band learned another group was already using it?

Trigger was dropped, and Mick Jones chose Foreigner because three members were British and three American, so half the band was foreign wherever it played.

Mick Jones recruited Lou Gramm for Foreigner after replaying an album by which band that Gramm had fronted?

Black Sheep had already split when Jones dug out the album, which Gramm had handed him backstage at one of the guitarist's own shows.

Which producer, known at the time for his work with AC/DC, oversaw Foreigner's chart-topping 1981 album 4?

Mutt Lange insisted on hearing every scrap of music Mick Jones had on tape, and the sessions ran so long that he had to leave near the end for a Def Leppard album.

Which then-unknown British synth player built the dreamy intro to Foreigner's "Waiting for a Girl Like You"?

Thomas Dolby was left alone in the studio overnight to layer sustained Minimoog notes into the intro, a year before She Blinded Me with Science made his name.

Which record label released Foreigner's classic albums and had the band headline its 40th anniversary concert in 1988?

Atlantic executive John Kalodner spotted the band's demo on his boss's desk and pushed for a deal after hearing a hit on it.

Which former Hurricane singer fronted Foreigner from 2005 to 2025 after sending the band an audition tape?

Kelly Hansen made his debut near Las Vegas in March 2005 and sang on Can't Slow Down, his only studio album with the group.

Which English bassist, who replaced Ed Gagliardi in 1979, joined Foreigner's founders in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Rick Wills had played with Roxy Music and the Small Faces before arriving for Head Games, and he stayed through the band's biggest hits of the 1980s.

Original Foreigner drummer Dennis Elliott left the band in the early 1990s to pursue which new career?

Wood sculpture became his second act: the self-taught Elliott carves vessels, wall pieces and mirrors, many of them from burlwood.

Before Foreigner, Mick Jones spent years in France writing songs and directing music for which French rock idol?

Johnny Hallyday made a string of late-1960s albums with Jones as a musical director, on sessions that also used a young Jimmy Page.

Which solo single by Lou Gramm reached the US top five in 1987 while he was still Foreigner's frontman?

Midnight Blue also spent five weeks atop the rock chart, and rehearsals for Foreigner's next album stalled until Gramm had finished promoting his solo record.

Lou Gramm's pre-Foreigner band was set to tour with which rock act in 1975 when a truck crash wrecked its equipment?

Kiss lost its opening act on Christmas Eve 1975: left with no gear to promote two new albums, Gramm's group soon broke up.

Foreigner's Ian McDonald played the saxophones on "Get It On", a 1971 glam rock hit by which band?

T. Rex hired him for the session years before Foreigner existed, and he played the part on a baritone sax borrowed from a fellow musician.

Foreigner's "Urgent" missed the top three in the US but reached number one in 1981 in which other country?

Canada sent it to the top that September, while British buyers shrugged: the single stalled outside the UK top 40 even when it was re-released.

Lou Gramm had gone back to which hometown when Mick Jones mailed him a plane ticket to audition for Foreigner?

Rochester is where Gramm was born, the son of a bandleader and a singer, and where he had returned after his previous group fell apart.

Which institution inducted Foreigner's Mick Jones and Lou Gramm as a pair in 2013, reuniting them on stage?

Songwriters Hall of Fame membership recognised the pair for co-writing most of the band's hits, and it came a full decade after Gramm had walked away from Foreigner.

Mick Jones played guitar in which British band, alongside keyboardist Gary Wright, shortly before founding Foreigner?

Spooky Tooth reformed in 1972 with Jones on guitar, and it was backstage at one of its American shows that Lou Gramm first handed him a record.

Which singer replaced Lou Gramm for Foreigner's 1991 album Unusual Heat, his only record with the band?

Johnny Edwards got the job after the first choice, a British singer, could not get free of a contract backing Cliff Richard. The album stalled at number 117 in the US.

Tom Bailey, who played synthesizer on Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is", fronted which British pop group?

Thompson Twins were finishing an album with producer Alex Sadkin when Foreigner hired him to rescue its own stalled sessions, and Bailey guested on the ballad.

Which British design studio, famed for Pink Floyd sleeves, had its proposed cover for Foreigner's album 4 rejected?

Hipgnosis had designed for the album's working title, Silent Partners. Management turned the image down, and the final sleeve copied an old film countdown leader.

Jeff Pilson, who became Foreigner's bassist in 2004, first made his name in which 1980s glam metal band?

Dokken took him on after singer Don Dokken went looking for a bass player, and two decades later a charity show with Mick Jones led to the Foreigner job.