45 Years Ago: Foreigner Builds On Their Legacy With 'Head Games'

Foreigner's Head Games arrived on Sept. 11, 1979, with the unenviable task of following two blockbusters.

First came Foreigner's self-titled debut in 1977, which peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard album chart, giving the fledgling group its first three Top 40 hits – "Feels Like the First Time," "Cold as Ice" and "Long, Long Way From Home."

"There was always a feeling from the word 'go,' really, of pressure to deliver after that first album," Foreigner co-founder Mick Jones tells UCR. "It was intense and I guess it built up even more for the Head Games album, because that would be following two mega-platinum albums, you know, when we had no idea a couple of years earlier that we’d be making mega-platinum albums. The whole thing was exciting, but that was a conscious approach to simplifying things a bit."

READ MORE: Top 10 Foreigner Songs

Foreigner's second album, Double Vision, released in 1978, also did big business. The LP again landed inside the Top 5 while adding three more hits to a growing stack with the title track, "Hot Blooded" and "Blue Morning, Blue Day." Head Games would be the third chapter in the Foreigner story, and the third album in three years, a staggering achievement considering that the band was also constantly on the road.

"Well, we were coming off the second album Double Vision, which you know we basically toured behind that for probably a year," Jones said. "We started that album up in New York in the studio that we recorded the first two albums, which was Atlantic Studios as it was then, and the mood – everybody was quite high on the incredible couple of years that we had just had with the explosion of the band.

"So, we were high on that and I think we sort of discussed that maybe we would take a bit more of a raw approach on the Head Games album," he added. "So initially, I just started to rock out with some riffs."

Watch Foreigner's 'Head Games' Video

Head Games also found Foreigner working with the third producer in as many albums. Roy Thomas Baker, who Jones had wanted to work with going back to Foreigner's debut, finally had an opening in his schedule.

"The idea to have a producer in the first place was something that we weren't quite sure of in the beginning," Jones said. "I had had a fair amount of experience in the studio. I produced stuff, and I was accustomed to that. I had spent time with two or three of the great producers at that time and learned quite a lot, but nevertheless I felt that it was necessary to have a second opinion and somebody to bounce things off of. I tried to make sure that those people were those kind of people that we would respect, and that we would listen to and learn from."

As Foreigner put together their debut, Baker was "working with Queen or something, so that didn't become reality. Then on the second album, he wasn’t available and Mutt Lange applied, but I didn’t know too much about Mutt Lange at that point," Jones said. "Then Roy came in for the Head Games album and Mutt finally made it for the 4 album. I really think it's very important to bounce off of somebody that you respect and somebody that is confident enough in what they do to suggest things that sometimes might not be received that well by the band, you know?" Jones said, with a laugh.

"In my case, I like to have somebody that I have a fair amount of respect for that basically has the power to suggest something," he added, "and even if it's completely wrong, they're not afraid to contribute their ideas and challenge some of your things that they may feel could be stronger."

Baker would add an extra amount of grit to Foreigner’s sound: Tracks like "Seventeen" had a rawness that sounded as if he'd simply set up his equipment in the jam room and pressed "record." "That’s really sort of what we had intended, for it to have a little swagger to it, as well," Jones said. "You know, as you say, I had forgot that 'Seventeen' was very straightforward with no embellishments really particularly outside of the guitars, drums and bass. It was a fairly long album – it took a while. I think we were still recovering from the touring and so that delayed the start a bit."

Listen to Foreigner's 'Seventeen'

How Lineup Changes Impacted 'Head Games'

Head Games marked the final appearances by co-founding members Al Greenwood and Ian McDonald, but also the arrival of bassist Rick Wills. Ed Gagliardi's replacement would remain through the remainder of Foreigner's classic era.

"I had known Rick for many years," Jones remembered. "When the band got together originally, there were six of us and we’d never really had that much experience playing together, except for while we were putting the band together in a rehearsal studio for nine months to a year. The way I saw it originally was that we would put an album out and, if we were lucky, maybe we'd get a little success with it – enough to build and do another album after that.

"The way things happened, we were forced in a way to this kind of maelstrom, this whirlwind, that was kind of like being in a blender almost," he added. "So as that developed, we started to realize that there were certain areas that we could possibly improve on. I had always been used to drums and bass being the foundation of the band. There was a little bit of difficulty with the communication between [drummer] Dennis Elliott and Ed Gagliardi, who was our first bass player."

Coincidentally, Wills was in New York City. "He gave me a call and came down to the studio and we didn't talk specifically about him joining the band, but we did sort of start to stay in communication," Jones said. "Then, one day, Dennis asked if Rick could come down and maybe jam with the band and he did. Immediately, it was sort of the rhythm section that we had really yearned for, and it was really so good that there was no question that there was going to be a change there."

The lineup change meant Jones had one less duty. "Basically, I played bass on the first two albums on maybe 90 percent of the tracks, so I definitely needed someone to come and relieve me," he said. "I do enjoy bass playing, but I keep it simple. I felt it was really important to have a real understanding between the rhythm section, and that's really how that came about."

Watch Foreigner's 'Dirty White Boy' Video

Newly inspired, they ended up recording more than could fit in a conventional album format. An expanded 2002 remaster also included the ballad "Zalia" as a bonus track. "I thought that 'Zalia' was a beautiful song, too," Jones said. "Ian and Lou worked on that one. You see, that's kind of what I wanted to do from the very beginning, as opposed to just being a heavy hard-rock band. I wanted the band to be able to rock, but I also wanted it to be able to show off some of the other talents in the band that might go a bit deeper melodically. Little things like 'Zalia,' putting that on there, I thought that was a really great touch.

"It was a very different-sounding song than what we'd done at that point," he added. "It's just one of those things that added a little different dimension, and we always sort of sought to do that, definitely throughout those first four albums."

By the time they were finished, Head Games boasted a noticeably less polished feel than what came before – and that was exactly what Jones was hoping to achieve.

"You know, we had a lot of fun with Roy in the studio," Jones said. "He's a very eccentric kind of guy, through his own admission. Somehow, he kept the wheels rolling really well and I think that's what helped us to achieve that album in a relatively short space of time. His sense of the studio – he came up as an engineer originally and put the work in before calling himself a producer, which many didn’t. They went straight from engineering into production and production is not just engineering, you know?

"I liken it to perhaps a director in a movie," Jones added. "It's more about getting the performance out of the musicians and out of the band and an ability to have opinions about melodic structure, whatever it may be – but it requires a certain ear. So, Roy filled that and although he had an engineer, Geoff Workman, he was pretty much overseeing everything all of the time. So, it worked very well."

Listen to Foreigner's 'Rev on the Red Line'

Foreigner Songwriting Duo's Strengthening Bond

Foreigner lodged their third straight appearance in the Top 5 and notched a couple of additional chart hits with "Dirty White Boy" and the title track. Jones said the sudden inspiration for "Head Games" happened in his apartment.

"I had just bought a piano and Lou had a keyboard at his place and he would play two-fingered riffs – and it kind of worked with me because they were in the black keys, which I always wrote on anyway," Jones said. "He kind of put this sort of rough idea of the chords of that riff at the beginning and it sounded pretty mean with an electric piano – like almost like clavinet sounds – and we blended that in with the guitar sounds and that’s what gave it a bit of a unique sound.

Looking back, he said the results had a certain familiarity: "I don't know. I guess, in a certain way, it was a bit of a connection there with 'Feels Like the First Time,' as far as being a Foreigner sort of riff," Jones said, " and that's probably the song that, with 'Feels Like the First Time,' represented what people sort of tended to think was the Foreigner sound."

Then there was the third single "Women," a push-back single that just missed the Top 40: "You know, it was supposed to be a fun song, tongue-in-cheek a little bit – but yeah, it's one of the band's favorite songs to play," Jones said. "Throughout all of the years, it always comes up, you know, the fans bring it up sometimes. There's certainly a nice little strut to it."

Paired with songs like "I'll Get Even With You," "Head Games" and "Love on the Telephone," a certain theme of redemption might seem to emerge – but Jones said that wasn't intentional. "No, I don't think there was a particular theme," he argued. "Maybe the fact was that Lou and I were starting to really sort of gel together as a writing unit. You know, we were both sort of thrown in the deep end at the beginning – rather I guess, Lou more than I, when he came and joined the band. His vocal prowess and quality, that was one thing, but I wanted him involved in the writing and he did have writing experience.

"With that first album," Jones added, "we did some collaborations and on the second album, we got more of an understanding of each other and for Head Games, I guess it was just following on in that kind of still getting to know you a bit. But by that time, we were feeling a lot more comfortable with each other. So, it was a united sort of album. We kind of liked where it was taking us. I've never been one for themes or for a concept, let's say, but sometimes those things just happen naturally anyway, you know. You don't really realize it but, like, you put those songs together just then and that has got a musical sound theme to it – and maybe somewhere in the lyrics, too."

Listen to Foreigner's 'Women'

Everything came together with remarkable speed. "I was spurred on by the success of the first album, and never really felt too pressured," Jones said. "When I look back at it, the first album came out in 1977, Double Vision came out in '78 and Head Games came out in '79. So I’m dazzled by that. When I look back, I know that the end of the Double Vision album was a little crazy, because we had a tour set up and we had to not rush it, but we had to spend a lot of time in the studio in order to get that out on time."

Decades later, Jones admitted that "it's not a bad thing to have deadlines and set that kind of system up for yourself. I think it keeps you aware. I certainly wasn’t going to let anything go through that we weren’t 100 percent about, at least from our standpoint and then the rest is up to the listener, obviously. As amazing as it is – three albums in three years – I never felt as much pressure as that schedule might dictate."

Other album tracks like "Love on the Telephone," "I'll Get Even With You" and "Rev on the Red Line" offered still more proof that Jones had found a rhythm in his collaborative partnership with vocalist Lou Gramm. They'd help the band to incredible new heights with 1981's 4, as Foreigner spun off four Top 40 singles – including "Urgent" (No. 4) and "Waiting for a Girl Like You" (No. 2).

"It was the first time working with Mutt and he was the first producer that wanted to come around to my place, and he wanted me to play every single idea that I had on cassette," Jones remembered. "He said that it didn’t matter if I was embarrassed or whatever, he just wanted to hear everything."

Jones shared all of his ideas, and Lange chose his favorites. "There were definitely ideas that I never would have played for anybody," Jones admitted. "I had the riff starting out 'Urgent,' and he picked that out and I said, 'That's like an experimental instrumental thing that I'm working on.' And he said, 'No, it isn't anymore. Let's take that one, because that's got a lot of potential.' At that point, "there wasn't even a song with it. It was just the introduction at the start of that."

Many challenges were still ahead, beginning with Jones' working relationship with Lange. "He challenged us and I think that's what added to the magic of that album," Jones admitted. "You know, we were seriously battling together and battling each other to get what we thought we wanted from that album. It ended up that it almost ended a few weeks into it, just through arguments and a whole bunch of stuff going on. But, by the time we finished, we were the best of friends – and, thankfully, we still respected each other very much. I know I respect Mutt for what he's done. He definitely gave us a tough time, but he got it out of us."