''4'', also known as ''Foreigner 4'', is the fourth studio album by the British-American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band Foreigner, released on July 3, 1981, on

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

. Several singles from the album were hits, including "

Urgent Urgent may refer to: * Urgent (American band), a 1980s band from New York City * Urgent (Canadian band), a 1980s band from Toronto, Ontario, Canada * "Urgent" (song), a 1981 song by Foreigner * Urgent! Records, a former record company See also ...

", "

Waiting for a Girl Like You "Waiting for a Girl Like You" is a 1981 power ballad by the British-American rock band Foreigner released as the second single from the album '' 4'' (1981) and was co-written by Lou Gramm and Mick Jones. The opening motif was written by Ian McD ...

" and "

Juke Box Hero "Juke Box Hero" is a song by British-American rock band Foreigner written by Lou Gramm and Mick Jones from their 1981 album '' 4''. It first entered the ''Billboard'' Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in July 1981 and eventually reached #3 on th ...

". The album name represented the band's fourth studio album and also the band's reduction from six to four members. Musically, it showed Foreigner shifting from

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

to more accessible mainstream

and

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...

. The album was a success worldwide, holding the #1 position on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' album chart for a total of 10 weeks. It eventually sold over six million copies in the US alone.

Background and writing

The album was originally titled ''Silent Partners'' and later was changed to ''4'', reflecting both the fact that it was Foreigner's fourth album and that the band was now down to four members. In 1981, art studio

Hipgnosis Hipgnosis were an English art design group based in London, that specialised in creating album cover artwork for rock musicians and bands. Their commissions included work for Pink Floyd, T. Rex, the Pretty Things, Black Sabbath, UFO, 10cc, Ba ...

was asked to design a cover based on the original title, and they developed a black and white image of a young man in bed with a pair of binoculars suspended in the air overhead. The resulting design was rejected by the band as they felt it was "too homosexual". The replacement cover for ''4'' was designed by Bob Defrin and modeled after an old fashioned

film leader A film leader is a length of film attached to the head or tail of a film to assist in threading a projector or telecine. A leader attached to the beginning of a reel is sometimes known as a head leader, or simply head, and a leader attached to the ...

. Hipgnosis is still credited with designing the record labels. Both Ian McDonald and

Al Greenwood Alan Greenwood (born October 20, 1951) is an American rock musician who was a founding member and keyboardist of the rock band Foreigner from 1976 to 1980. He performed on the albums '' Foreigner'' (1977), ''Double Vision'' (1978) and '' Head ...

had left before the recording of ''4'', part because they wanted to take a more significant role in writing songs, while Mick Jones wanted to control the songwriting along with

Lou Gramm Lou Gramm (born Louis Andrew Grammatico; 2 May 1950) is an American singer-songwriter, best known for being the lead singer of the rock band Foreigner from 1977 to 1990 and 1992 to 2003 during which time the band had numerous successful albu ...

. As a result, all of the songs on the album are compositions by Jones and/or Gramm. McDonald and Greenwood had played saxophone and keyboards, respectively, and so several session musicians were needed to replace their contributions, among them

Junior Walker Autry DeWalt Mixon Jr. (June 14, 1931 – November 23, 1995), known professionally as Junior Walker, was an American multi-instrumentalist (primarily saxophonist and vocalist) who recorded for Motown during the 1960s. He also performed as a ses ...

, who played the saxophone solo in the bridge of "Urgent", and a young

Thomas Dolby Thomas Morgan Robertson (born 14 October 1958), known by the stage name Thomas Dolby, is an English musician, producer, composer, entrepreneur and teacher. Dolby came to prominence in the 1980s, releasing hit singles including "She Blinded Me ...

, who soon leveraged this collaboration into a successful solo career. The album took 10 months to produce. During that time they went from starting work at the recording studio around noon to starting around midnight. This changing schedule helped inspire the opening song on the album, "Night Life." According to Jones "The later it got at night, the bigger the buzz got, and a lot of weird characters, some of them hookers, would appear. It was a big mixture of a lot of different characters – so that was the inspiration for opening song, 'Night Life.'”

Reception

The editors of ''Classic Rock'' called ''4'' Foreigner's "masterpiece." ''Ultimate Classic Rock'' critic Matt Wardlaw rated four of the songs from ''4'' - "Juke Box Hero," "Waiting for a Girl Like You," "Urgent" and "Night Life" among Foreigner's top 10 songs. ''Ultimate Classic Rock'' critic Eduardo Rivadavia rated two of the songs from ''4'' - "Girl on the Moon" and "Woman in Black" among Foreigner's 10 most underrated songs. ''Classic Rock'' critic

Malcolm Dome Malcolm Dome (1955 – 29 October 2021) was an English music journalist. He wrote about rock and heavy metal from 1979. In addition to writing books, he was a journalist for ''Record Mirror'', ''Kerrang!'', ''Metal Hammer'' and ''Classic Rock ...

also rated two songs from ''4'', but two different ones, as being among Foreigner's 10 most underrated – "I’m Gonna Win," which he compares to "Juke Box Hero," at #8 and "Night Life," – which he praises for its " confident energy," at #1. Jones has rated three of the songs from ''4'' ("Urgent," "Juke Box Hero" and "Girl on the Moon") as being among his 11 favorite Foreigner songs.

Track listing

Personnel

Foreigner

– lead vocals, percussion * Mick Jones – keyboards, guitars, backing vocals *

Rick Wills Richard William Wills (born 5 December 1947) is an English bass guitarist. He is best known for his work with the rock band Foreigner and his associations with the Small Faces, Peter Frampton, Spooky Tooth, David Gilmour, Bad Company and The J ...

– bass, backing vocals *

Dennis Elliott Dennis Leslie Elliott (born 18 August 1950, in Peckham, London) is a British musician and artist, who was the original drummer for the rock band, Foreigner. He played with the band from 1976 until leaving between 1991 and 1993. He went on to ...

– drums, backing vocals

Additional personnel

– main synthesizers *

Larry Fast Lawrence Roger Fast (born December 10, 1951) is an American synthesizer player and composer. He is best known for his 1975–1987 series of synthesizer music albums (''Synergy'') and for his contributions to a number of popular music acts, inclu ...

– sequential synthesizer (2, 3, 10) *

Bob Mayo Robert J. Mayo (August 25, 1951 – February 23, 2004) was a session keyboardist and guitarist, perhaps best known for his work with Peter Frampton. Biography Mayo was born in New York City, and grew up in Westchester County. He began studyin ...

– keyboard textures (3, 4) *

Michael Fonfara Michael Fonfara (11 August 1946 – 8 January 2021) was a Canadian keyboard player who was most notable for his work as a member of The Electric Flag and Rhinoceros in the 1960s, Rough Trade and Lou Reed's backing band in the 1970s and The Downch ...

– keyboard textures (6, 9) *

Hugh McCracken Hugh Carmine McCracken (March 31, 1942 – March 28, 2013) was an American rock guitarist and session musician based in New York City, primarily known for his performance on guitar and also as a harmonica player. McCracken was additionally ...

–

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos tha ...

(9) *

Mark Rivera Mark Rivera (born May 24, 1953) is an American saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, singer, musical director and corporate entertainment provider who is mostly known for his work with Billy Joel. In addition to playing soprano, alto, tenor and b ...

–

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

(3, 6), backing vocals *

– saxophone solo (6) * Ian Lloyd – backing vocals *

Robert John "Mutt" Lange Robert John "Mutt" Lange (born 11 November 1948) is a South African record producer and songwriter, mainly known for his work in rock music as well as his previous marriage to Canadian singer Shania Twain, for whom he wrote and produced several ...

– backing vocals

Production

* Produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange and Mick Jones * Recorded and engineered by Dave Wittman (chief engineer) and

Tony Platt Tony Platt is an English sound engineer and record producer, best known for his work with a diverse mix of artists, including, AC/DC, Cheap Trick, Bob Marley, Iron Maiden, Shy, Buddy Guy, Foreigner, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Sparks, Jazz ...

(basic tracks). * Second engineer – Brad Samuelsohn * Assistant engineers – Edwin Hobgood and Michel Sauvage * Mastered by

George Marino George Marino (April 15, 1947 – June 4, 2012) was an American mastering engineer known for working on albums by rock bands starting in the late 1960s. Biography Marino was born on April 15, 1947, in the New York City borough The Bronx. He at ...

at Sterling Sound (New York, NY). * Art Direction – Bob Defrin * Design –

* Management – Bud Prager

Surround releases

''4'' was released in 2001 in multichannel

DVD-Audio DVD-Audio (commonly abbreviated as DVD-A) is a digital format for delivering high-fidelity audio content on a DVD. DVD-Audio uses most of the storage on the disc for high-quality audio and is not intended to be a video delivery format. The sta ...

, and on September 14, 2011, on hybrid stereo-multichannel

Super Audio CD Super Audio CD (SACD) is an optical disc format for audio storage introduced in 1999. It was developed jointly by Sony and Philips Electronics and intended to be the successor to the Compact Disc (CD) format. The SACD format allows multiple aud ...

Warner Japan Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and t ...

in their Warner Premium Sound series.Warner Premium Sound 14 September releases
(in

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

). ''Retrieved 2011-11-03.'' June 2015 saw its re-release on Atlantic Records premium 180-gram vinyl with its original 1981 classic track listing.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:4 (Foreigner Album) Foreigner (band) albums 1981 albums Albums produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange Albums produced by Mick Jones (Foreigner) Atlantic Records albums Albums recorded at Electric Lady Studios it:4 (disambigua)#Musica