4 (Foreigner album)

4, also known as Foreigner 4, is the fourth studio album by the British-American rock band Foreigner, released on July 2, 1981, by Atlantic Records. The album's name signifies that it is the band's fourth studio album and also the fact that the band's membership had reduced from six to four members. Musically, it showed Foreigner shifting from hard rock to more accessible mainstream rock and pop music.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The release of 4 coincided with the launch of MTV later that August.

4 was a commercial success worldwide, holding the No. 1 position on the Billboard 200 chart for a total of 10 weeks. It eventually sold over six million copies in the U.S. alone. Several of its singles were hits, including "Urgent", "Waiting for a Girl Like You" and "Juke Box Hero".

Background and writing

The album was originally titled Silent Partners and later was changed to 4,<ref name=stormthorgerson/> reflecting both the fact that it was Foreigner's fourth album and that the band now consisted of four members. In 1981, art studio Hipgnosis was asked to design a cover based on the original title, and it developed a black-and-white image of a young man in bed with a pair of binoculars suspended in the air overhead.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The design was rejected by the band as they felt that it was "too homosexual."<ref name=stormthorgerson>Template:Cite web</ref> The replacement cover for 4 was designed by Bob Defrin and modeled after an old fashioned film leader. Hipgnosis received credit for the design of the label.

Both Ian McDonald and Al Greenwood had departed the group before the recording of 4, partly because they wanted to take a more significant role in writing songs while Mick Jones wanted to control the songwriting along with Lou Gramm.<ref name=louder>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> As a result, all of the songs on the album are compositions by Jones and/or Gramm. McDonald, who had played saxophone and guitar, and Greenwood, who had played keyboards, were replaced by session musicians, including Junior Walker, who played the saxophone solo in the bridge of "Urgent", and a young Thomas Dolby.

During the course of the 10 months in which the album was made (including pre-production), the starting time of the band's daily work in the recording studio transitioned from noon to midnight.<ref name=louder/> This changing schedule inspired the opening song on the album, "Night Life."<ref name=louder/> According to Jones, "The later it got at night, the bigger the buzz got, and a lot of weird characters, some of them hookers, would appear. It was a big mixture of a lot of different characters – so that was the inspiration for opening song, 'Night Life.'”<ref name=louder/>

Reception

The editors of Classic Rock called 4 Foreigner's "masterpiece."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Ultimate Classic Rock critic Matt Wardlaw rated four of the songs from 4—"Juke Box Hero", "Waiting for a Girl Like You", "Urgent" and "Night Life"—among Foreigner's top 10 songs.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Ultimate Classic Rock critic Eduardo Rivadavia rated two of the songs from 4—"Girl on the Moon" and "Woman in Black"—among Foreigner's 10 most-underrated songs.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Classic Rock critic Malcolm Dome also rated two songs from 4 among Foreigner's 10 most underrated—"I’m Gonna Win," which he compares to "Juke Box Hero," at #8 and "Night Life,"—which he praises for its "confident energy," at #1.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> PopMatters critic Evan Sawdey called "Night Life" a "remarkably limp album opener."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Mick Jones has rated three of the songs from 4 ("Urgent," "Juke Box Hero" and "Girl on the Moon") among his 11 favorite Foreigner songs.<ref name=jones>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personnel

Foreigner

• Lou Gramm: lead vocals, percussion
• Mick Jones: guitars, keyboards, backing vocals
• Rick Wills: bass, backing vocals
• Dennis Elliott: drums, backing vocals

Additional personnel

• Thomas Dolby: main synthesizers
• Larry Fast: sequential synthesizer (2, 3, 10)
• Bob Mayo: keyboard textures (3, 4)
• Michael Fonfara: keyboard textures (6, 9)
• Hugh McCracken: slide guitar (9)
• Mark Rivera: saxophone (3, 6), backing vocals
• Junior Walker: saxophone solo (6)
• Ian Lloyd: backing vocals
• Robert John "Mutt" Lange: backing vocals

Production

• Production: Robert John "Mutt" Lange and Mick Jones
• Recording and engineering: Dave Wittman (chief engineer) and Tony Platt (basic tracks)
• Second engineer: Brad Samuelsohn
• Assistant engineers: Edwin Hobgood and Michel Sauvage
• Mastering: George Marino at Sterling Sound, New York
• Art direction: Bob Defrin
• Design: Hipgnosis
• Management: Bud Prager

Rereleases

4 was released in 2001 in multichannel DVD-Audio,<ref>Audio Revolution review Template:Webarchive of Foreigner’s 4 DVD-Audio.</ref> and on September 14, 2011, on hybrid stereo-multichannel Super Audio CD by Warner Japan in its Warner Premium Sound series.<ref>Warner Premium Sound 14 September releases Template:Webarchive (in Japanese). Retrieved 2011-11-03.</ref> It was rereleased in June 2015 by Atlantic Records as premium 180-gram vinyl with its original 1981 track listing.

Charts

Weekly charts

Template:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chart

Chart (1981–1982)	Peak position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)<ref name=aus>Template:Cite book</ref>	3
French Albums (SNEP)<ref>Template:Cite web Select Foreigner from the menu, then press OK.</ref>	6
Japanese Albums (Oricon)<ref name="JPN">Template:Cite book</ref>	20

Chart (2025)	Peak position
Hungarian Physical Albums (MAHASZ)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	13

Year-end charts

Chart (1981)	Position
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	16
Chart (1982)	Position
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	3