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4, also known as Foreigner 4, is the fourth studio album by the British-American rock band Foreigner, released on July 3, 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.[10] 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".
On September 12, 2025, Rhino Records released a three CD Deluxe Edition of 4, with a 2025 remix of the original album, as well as unreleased songs, alternative/early versions & mixes, instrumental rough mixes, and live versions from their 1981-1982 tour.
The album was originally titled Silent Partners and later was changed to 4,[11] 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.[12] The design was rejected by the band's management as they felt that it was "too homosexual."[11] 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.[2][13] 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. Dolby, who was not an admirer of the band, ended up on the album due to a misunderstanding on his part: "I got a message from a mate in London saying 'Mick Jones is trying to get hold of you to do a keyboard session in New York.' And I thought ‘This is fantastic. The Clash have finally given me the call'... It turned out to be not that Mick Jones at all, it was the British Mick Jones that had gone to America to form Foreigner."[14]
During the course of the 8 months in which the album was recorded, the starting time of the band's daily work in the recording studio transitioned from noon to midnight.[2][15] This changing schedule inspired the opening song on the album, "Night Life."[2] 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.'”[2] Due to the lengthy recording, however, Lange had to leave towards the end to fulfill commitments with Def Leppard on their High 'n' Dry album.[2]
The editors of Classic Rock called 4 Foreigner's "masterpiece."[16]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.[17]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.[18]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 No. 8 and "Night Life,"—which he praises for its "confident energy," at No. 1.[19]PopMatters critic Evan Sawdey called "Night Life" a "remarkably limp album opener."[20]
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.[21]
↑Deggans, Eric (1998). "Foreigner". In Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel (eds.). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Detroit: Visible Ink Press. pp.446–447.
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