10 Most Rocking Foreigner Songs

Feature Photo: Brandon Nagy / Shutterstock.com

First and foremost, Foreigner is a rock and roll band. Yes, they had enormous success with ballads like “I Want to Know What Love Is” and “Waiting for a Girl Like You,” but this list isn’t about those songs. We wanted the Foreigner songs that came out of the speakers hard, loud, and ready to rock. It’s that simple, so here you go.

# 10 – Love on the Telephone – Head Games

“Love on the Telephone” is pure, raging Foreigner and one of the reasons I have always loved the sequencing on Head Games. It comes right after “Dirty White Boy,” and I have always thought the second track on an album is one of the most important positions on the whole record. Lou Gramm and Mick Jones wrote the song, while Rick Wills, Dennis Elliott, Ian McDonald, and Al Greenwood help give it that tight 1979 Foreigner sound. The lyric turns a long-distance relationship into something urgent enough to rock, with Gramm trying to hold onto a connection that keeps slipping away. Of course, now the real question is whether anybody still talks on the phone anymore—text me the answer.

# 9 – Reaction to Action – Agent Provocateur

“Reaction to Action” delivers a heavy dose of rock and roll, Foreigner style. Lou Gramm and Mick Jones wrote the track for 1984’s Agent Provocateur, with Jones and Alex Sadkin producing. Gramm sounds like he is leaning into every line while Rick Wills and Dennis Elliott keep the song driving underneath him. The attraction in the lyric is immediate and physical rather than sentimental, which is exactly why the song works so well on a list built around Foreigner’s harder side. Yeah, baby!

# 8 – Blue Morning, Blue Day – Double Vision

If you’re an old-school Foreigner fan, I know you dig this tune. “Blue Morning, Blue Day” came from 1978’s Double Vision, was written by Lou Gramm and Mick Jones, and reached number fifteen on the Billboard Hot 100. Gramm sounds worn down by a relationship that has gone bad, while Mick Jones, Ian McDonald, Al Greenwood, Ed Gagliardi, and Dennis Elliott give the track an uneasy pull that fits the lyric perfectly. Something about this song has always made me a little jittery and nervous. But you know what? It is worth it—what a great rocker.

# 7 – Cold As Ice – Foreigner

“Cold as Ice” is one of Foreigner’s signature songs, and every kid who tried to play piano in the 1970s seemed to take a shot at that introduction. Even people who did not play piano would sit down and try to figure it out. Released from the band’s 1977 self-titled debut, the song reached number six on the Billboard Hot 100 and became the perfect follow-up to “Feels Like the First Time.” Lou Gramm’s vocal and Mick Jones’s keyboard-and-guitar attack made the song instantly recognizable from the first few seconds. It is unbelievable how many great rock songs came out of that decade, and this one still sounds fantastic.

# 6 – Dirty White Boy – Head Games

“Dirty White Boy” opens Foreigner’s 1979 album Head Games with enough bravado and guitar power to knock you right out of your rock and roll Pumas. Mick Jones and Lou Gramm wrote the song, and it announced immediately that Foreigner was not slowing down on album number three. Jones’s opening guitar work gives the track its bite while Gramm attacks the vocal with exactly the right amount of attitude. The song was the lead single from the album and became another major Foreigner radio record. This band was becoming more legendary with every record they released.

# 5 – Feels Like The First Time – Foreigner

On our regular Top 10 Foreigner Songs list, “Feels Like the First Time” came in first, but this list is about the heaviest and most rocking tunes, so number five feels right here. I still remember hearing this song in the spring of 1977 and having it blow my mind, which is probably why I will always hear a little bit of high school whenever that opening guitar comes on. Mick Jones wrote the song, and Foreigner’s debut single climbed to number four on the Billboard Hot 100. So many of these lists are subjective and tied to the memories we built around this music, and there is nothing wrong with that. You’ve got your opinion and we’ve got ours—that’s rock and roll, baby!

Read More: Top 10 Foreigner Love Songs

# 4 – Double Vision – Double Vision

Foreigner’s debut album became such a big part of our lives in 1977 that I honestly did not think they could come back with a second record that would hit us the same way. We were wrong. “Double Vision” became the title track of the band’s 1978 second album and reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100. Lou Gramm, Mick Jones, Ian McDonald, Al Greenwood, Ed Gagliardi, and Dennis Elliott sound like a band that knows exactly how much momentum it has. We can argue forever about whether Foreigner or Double Vision is the better album, but the title track simply smoked.

# 3 – Juke Box Hero – 4

Hands down, “Juke Box Hero” is one of the coolest songs in rock and roll history. That pulsating opening creates all this tension before the guitars come crashing in—boom, turn this one up, baby! Lou Gramm and Mick Jones wrote the song for 1981’s 4, which was produced by Jones and Robert John “Mutt” Lange at Electric Lady Studios in New York. Rick Wills and Dennis Elliott drive the rhythm section, while Thomas Dolby and Larry Fast add synthesizers to a record that still rocks like crazy. Mutt Lange’s work with AC/DC and Def Leppard was already part of his legend, and years later he would make huge records with Shania Twain too.

# 2 – Hot Blooded – Double Vision

“Hot Blooded” was the song that told us Foreigner was not going to be a one-album band. I remember hearing it on the radio in the summer of 1978 and going out to get Double Vision right away. Written by Lou Gramm and Mick Jones, the lead single raced to number three on the Billboard Hot 100. Gramm delivers the whole thing with exactly the swagger the title promises, while the band turns one big guitar riff into a full-blown arena-rock anthem. This is Foreigner having fun, playing hard, and making absolutely no apologies for it.

Read More: Top 10 Foreigner Songs

# 1 – Long, Long Way From Home – Foreigner

“Long, Long Way from Home” opened side two of Foreigner’s debut album, and I have always thought that position was almost as important as the second song on side one—did you get all that? Lou Gramm, Mick Jones, and Ian McDonald wrote the song, and the track became a major FM favorite before reaching number twenty on the Billboard Hot 100. The opening guitar and rhythm section hit hard, but Ian McDonald’s saxophone is one of the great details that keeps the record from sounding like anybody else. “Feels Like the First Time” may still be my favorite song on the album, but this is the hardest-rocking tune on that debut and possibly in the band’s entire career. That is why “Long, Long Way from Home” takes the number-one spot.