Foreigner

Artist: Foreigner

LP: 7" single
Song: "Juke Box Hero"

[ listen ]

Here's one of the songs that was playing on 107.3 KFFM in Yakima, WA when I was 12 years old in early 1982, just as I was starting to listen to popular music. I loved it then, and it's only gotten with better with time. Turn this one up loud. It's exhilarating! Though the chorus seems designed for it, there's no fading out here. The song goes out blazing, suddenly, at full volume and with a bang. 

The third single from Foreigner's fourth album, "Juke Box Hero" peaked at #26 on the Billboard Hot 100, once again demonstrating mainstream America's inability to recognize or embrace quality entertainment that rises out of the ordinary. You can read about Foreigner here, and go here to find out how co-writer Mick Jones was inspired to create the song after taking in a dedicated fan who had been standing for hours in the rain outside one of their concerts—a scene that sounds like it was lifted right out of ALL ABOUT EVE.

[ Foreigner, circa 1981 ]