Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 125

Chart Week: April 10, 1982
Song: “Juke Box Hero” – Foreigner
Chart Position: #26, 9th week on the chart. This was the song’s peak.

There are songs, albums, and bands that are foundational to our love of music but get forgotten as we age. We go through phases, tastes shift, and over four or five decades pile up huge collections of music that bury some of those early interests.

This week I was reminded that for a couple years, Foreigner was an important band to my developing music tastes. That connection did not last, but in the moment they were kind of a big deal to me.

In fifth grade, Foreigner was one of the most popular bands for us dumbasses who stood around talking about music at recess. That fall, “Urgent” seemed to be everywhere there was a radio. At the time I had no understanding of how insanely horny it was. I just knew the funky guitar intro and sax solo were awesome.

Fast forward a year, the famous Christmas where I received the Pioneer boombox. Along with the radio, my mom got me a stack of cassette tapes I had highlighted in her Columbia House Record Company catalog. One of those selections was Foreigner’s 4 album. If you were a boy who liked rock music in the early Eighties, odds are you owned a copy of 4.

Since I had like six tapes to my name, I listened to them in a constant loop over the holiday break and quickly knew 4 front-to-back. The song that stuck out above the others was “Juke Box Hero,” an ode how fans connect with their musical heroes.

“Juke Box Hero” was built from two different ideas the band brought to the 4 sessions. Lead singer Lou Gramm had a demo based on his experience trying to see Jimi Hendrix but not getting in because the concert was sold out. Guitarist Mick Jones had his own demo based on a young man who spent hours standing in the rain outside the arena in Cincinnati when Foreigner was in town. Producer Mutt Lange guided the band to combine elements of each story into one song.

Over 40 years later, I still think it’s a pretty bad ass song. I still enjoy the moody intro, built on the electric bass and Thomas Dolby’s synthesizers. Jones blowing the song open when he enters with his explosive power chords is still cool as hell. Later he goes off nicely when he solos. Gramm takes his voice to its edge, pushing harder and harder as the song progresses. The chorus is perfect for joining in and throwing your hands up into the air from floor seats at a show.

Listening today, while they tell a clear story, the lyrics aren’t the most profound I’ve ever heard. In fact, they come across as a little cheesy. However, I mostly hear a majestic anthem that celebrates the power of rock. Or, better, The Power Of Rock. Did Jack Black build his career on the concepts laid out in “Juke Box Hero”? I suppose that means the words were perfect for the assignment. Each time I played it this week, I was involuntarily pumping my fist or playing air guitar.

Foreigner 4 was a calculated shift in tone for the band. They had great success in the late Seventies playing standard hard rock. Gramm and Jones wanted more, though, and pushed their sound in a more mainstream direction on the album. It included a power ballad that became one of the biggest songs ever to not hit #1. It also featured the best single of their career, one that was in line with their previous, heavier hits. A track that reminds middle aged fans of their youth, when the people on stage seemed like superheroes. 8/10

One of the best pieces of trivia I came across in my research was about Thomas Dolby’s role on the album. I already knew that Foreigner recruited him to play synthesizers. What I did not know what that Dolby was not a fan of the band. In fact, he initially accepted the offer because he ran into a common problem at the time: he confused the two British guitarists named Mick Jones.

“Wow,” he remembered thinking when he got the call, “I’m going to play with the Clash!” However, it was not Joe Strummer’s partner Michael Geoffrey Jones who reached out. It was Lou Gramm’s partner Michael Leslie Jones. What are the odds the same country would produce, at roughly the same time, two guitarists with the same first and last names, who also answered to the same nickname? One was a member of one of the most successful bands in the world in their prime. The other helped found one of the most influential bands of all time.

Dolby persevered, earning critical praise for his contributions to 4. He used the money earned on the project to finance his debut album The Golden Age of Wireless.