Song of the Day 4/23: Foreigner, “Urgent”

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its Class of 2024 the other day, and the list of inductees was greeted not with the usual griping but rather a giant, collective “meh.” I blame this on Foreigner.

See what I mean? You probably went “meh” at the mention of their name, because that’s always been the reaction to Foreigner, even when they ruled the corporate rock roost from the mid-’70s to mid-’80s. But if the “fame” in the museum’s name means anything, the band certainly achieved it. They sold more than 80 million records, 35 million in the U.S., mostly during their decade-long heyday. Their first five albums all reached the top 5 and reached at least triple platinum status in the U.S. Their first eight singles, from “Feels Like the First Time” in 1977 through 1979’s “Head Games,” reached Billboard’s Top 20.

Yet they were never popular, because too many people liked them. Their music was bland if hook-filled, and they had no personality to make up for it. They were derided, not unfairly, as soulless and formulaic. The fact that listeners gobbled it up made taste-makers like them even less, even as their songs played on via classic rock radio.

Formed by veteran British guitarist Mick Jones (no relation to the Clash’s Mick Jones), whose roots predate the Beatles, and fronted by Lou Gramm, who Jones plucked from a band in Rochester, N.Y., Foreigner released its first album in 1977, so the big mahoffs at the Hall weren’t falling all over themselves in their haste to honor them.

That changed this year in part because Jones’ stepson, a certain DJ and producer you might have heard of, Mark Ronson, campaigned for the band, publicizing that Jones, now 79, is suffering from Parkinson’s and might not have much time left.

“Urgent,” from Foreigner’s fourth LP, “4” was, fittingly, a No. 4 Billboard hit in 1981. Thomas Dolby did the synths, and the sax solo is by Junior Walker.