318 Hello Foreigner - Feels Like The First Time

Chart  entered  : 6  May  1978

Chart  peak  : 39

Number  of  hits  : 11

Foreigner  bear  the  torch  here  for  a  whole  genre. None  of  their  AOR  peers  that  dominated  the  American  charts  at  the  turn  of  the  decade  - Styx, Toto, Journey, REO  Speedwagon et  al - mustered  even  half  a  dozen  hits  here . Even  Chicago  don't  get  over  the  line. Perhaps  the  fact  that  half  of  Foreigner  were  British  gave  these  guys  an  advantage.

They'd  certainly  been  around  the  block  a  bit. Main  man  Mick  Jones  was  33  and  first  appeared  as  a  replacement  guitarist  in  the  instrumental  outfit  Nero  and  the  Gladiators  in  1963.  This  was  after  their  two  hit  singles  and  they  don't  appear  to  have  recorded  anything  while  he  was  in  the  line  up. Mick  went  to  France  where  he  worked  as  a  session  musician  and  songwriter  for  artists  such  as  Johnny  Hallyday. He  became  friendly  with  the  Beatles  when  they  toured  with  Hallyday  in  France  in  1964.

He  returned  to  England  at  the  start  of the  seventies  and  hooked  up  with Gary Wright  ex-lead  singer  of  the  hard  rock  band  Spooky  Tooth. He  played  on  Wright's  second  solo  album  "Footprint"  and  became  part  of  his  backing  band  Wonderwheel.  Two  singles  were  subsequently  released  as  Gary  Wright's  Wonderwheel , the  hard-rocking "I  Know"  which  is  instantly  forgettable  and  "Ring  of  Changes  which  I  haven't  heard. Wright  then  took  Mick  with  him  into  a  re-formed  Spooky  Tooth. Mick  played  on  three  albums  with  the  re-formed  band  though  he  had  only  a  minor  part  in  the  songwriting  with  credits  on  just  four  tracks  across  the  three. Although  commercial  success  continued  to  elude  them, their  keyboard-heavy  hard  rock  sound  is  a  clear  template  for  Foreigner.

When  the  band  dissolved  again  in  1975  Mick  moved  to  the  USA  for  a  temporary  team-up  with  Mountain  singer  and  guitarist  Leslie  West. His  tenure  in  The  Leslie  West  Band  lasted  for  one  album  of  the  same  name. There  was  one  single , released  in  the  US  only, a  hard -rocking  update  of  The  Animals  classic  "We  Gotta  Get  Out  Of  This  Place" . The  band  disintegrated  soon  after  and  West's  manager  Bud  Prager  advised  Mick  to  put  his  own  band  together.

His  first  recruit  was  keyboardist  Al  Greenwood , a  24  year  old   from  Chicago  who  had  recently  been  in  Storm, an  offshoot  band  from  prog-rockers  Flash  that  failed  to  get  off  the  ground. After  jamming  with  some  other  guys  Mick  met  another  English  ex-pat  Ian  McDonald  at  a  session  and  recruited  him  into  the  band.

Ian  was  30  and  an  original  member  of  prog  rock  legends  King  Crimson  after  serving  as  a  bandsman  in  the  army. He  played  a  variety  of  instruments  on  their  epochal  debut  LP  "In  the  Court  of  The  Crimson  King"  in  1969  and  had  a  hand  in  writing  every  track. He  wrote  all  the  music  on  the  tracks"I  Talk  To  The  Wind"  and  "The  Court  of  the  Crimson  King" in  conjunction  with  his  lyricist  friend  Pete Sinfield  whom  he  introduced  to  the  band. By  the  time  of  their  American  tour  later  that  year  it  had  become  clear  that  Robert  Fripp  wanted  to  take  the  band  in  a  darker,  more  adventurous  direction  than  he  and  drummer  Michael  Giles  were  comfortable  with  and  after  some  discussion they  made  a  very  civilised  departure  at  the  end  of  the  tour.

After  a  year  in  the  studio  "McDonald  and  Giles"  was  released  in  January  1971. It  sounds  like  King  Crimson  with  some  of  the  abrasive  edges  filed  off  With  two  of  the  tracks,  multi-part  epics - "Birdman"  lasts  over  21  minutes  there  were  no  singles. Despite  the  Crimson   connection  it  didn't  sell ; that  both  their  surnames  had  unfortunate  rustic  connotations  perhaps  didn't  help. The  duo  split  with  Giles  becoming  a  busy  session  musician. Ian  was  lined  up  to  rejoin  King  Crimson  in  1974  when  Fripp  announced  the  end  of  the  band.  Instead  he  headed  for  the  States.

Shortly  after  recruiting  Ian , Mick  met  another  ex-pat  , 25  year  old  drummer  Dennis  Elliott  from  Peckham, at  an  Ian  Hunter  session. After  a  brief spell  in  his  brother's  band  The  Tea  Set in  the mid-sixties   he  joined  Ferris  Wheel  fronted  by  Linda  Lewis  in  1969  and  played  on  their  eponymous  second  album.  Their  music  isn't  easily  found  but  I  did  catch  the  single  "Can't  Stop  Now"  which  is  interesting , with  Lewis's  instantly  recognisable  vocal  atop  folk  rock  backing  somewhere  between  Jethro  Tull  and  Shocking  Blue.  The  baffling  jazzy  break  probably  stymied  its  chances.

Dennis  had  already  left  to  join  IF  , a  prolific  jazz  rock  outfit  led  by  saxophonist  Dick  Morrrisey.  Something  of  a  British  answer  to  Chicago  and  Blood , Sweat  and  Tears  they released  four  albums  in  two  years  and  maintained  a  punishing  tour  schedule.  They  were  a  respected  live  act  and  the  first  three  albums  made  a  minor  showing  on  the  US  chart  but  they  were  unable  to  get  to  the  next  level. In  1972  Morrissey's  health  gave  way  and  he had  to  go   into  hospital. The  original  band , Dennis  included, dispersed. He  too  made  his  way  over  to  the  US  session  scene.

Finding  a  singer  proved  more  problematical. After  multiple  auditions  Mick  decided  to  call  up  a  guy  he'd  met  while  on  tour  with  Spooky  Tooth. Louis  Grammaticco  was  a  26  year  old  New  Yorker  from  a  musical family . After  performing  in  local  bands  in  his  teens  he  became  front  man  for  a  band  called  Black  Sheep. Chrysalis  signed  them  for  the  single  "Stick  Around" , an  unsavoury  hard  rock  tune  about  being  caught  with  a  fifteen  year  old  which  owes  rather  a  lot  to  All  Right  Now.  When  it  failed  to  make  any  waves  they  were  free  to  sign  with  Capitol  and  released  an  eponymous  album  in  1975  which  wastes  his  vocal  talents  on  some  very  uninspiring  tunes. The  dreary  plodding  "Broken  Promises"  was  lined  up  as  a  single  but  it  was  never  released.  A  second  album  "Encouraging  Words "  was  released  at  the  end  of  the  year  and  is  similarly  devoid  of  good  songs  and  in  thrall  to  Free. The  band  went  out  on  tour  as  support  to  Kiss  but  suffered  a  disaster  on  Christmas  Eve  when  their  equipment  van  was  involved  in  a  destructive  accident  on  an  icy  road. Before  they  could  get things  back  together  their  lead  singer  had  been  poached.

The  line-up  was  completed  by  another  New  Yorker, 24  year  old  Ed  Gagliardi  on  bass.

At  first  they  were  called  Trigger  but on  hearing  of  another  band  using  the  name  they  changed  to  Foreigner.  Their  eponymous  debut  album  was  released  in  March  1977.

"Feels  Like  The  First Time"  is  the  opening  track  and  first  single  released  a  month  after  the  LP.  Mick  Jones  wrote  the  song   about  finding  a  new  love  when  mature  , as  befitted  his  years. The  song  is  a  modern  rock  juggernaut  with  a  glossy  production  which  highlights  the  glitzy  synth  flourishes  and  soft  harmonies. This  can't  quite  disguise  that  the  stomping  chorus  isn't  very  interesting  but  it  was  effective  enough  to  launch  the  band. The  song  struck  a  chord  with  rock  fans  entering  their  thirties  who  propelled  it  to  number  4  in  the  US  charts. It  wasn't  a  hit  in  the  UK  on  first  release,  nor  was  the  follow -up  "Cold  As  Ice" ( number  6  in  the  US ). The  following  year  all  three  singles  from  the  album  were  packaged  together  as  a  maxi-single  to  promote  their  UK  tour   with  this  as  the  lead  track  and  they  chalked  up  their  first  hit  here.