Head Games
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Album Summary
By the time Foreigner walked into the studio to cut 'Head Games,' they were one of the hardest-working rock bands on the planet, and baby, you could hear it in every groove. Released in September 1979 on Atlantic Records and produced by Roy Thomas Baker — the man who knew how to make a rock record breathe and punch at the same time — this album came out of a band riding a serious commercial wave, tightening their sound and leaning harder into that sleek, metropolitan hard rock feel they had been refining. Mick Jones and Lou Gramm were firing on all cylinders, and Baker's production gave the whole record a crisp, radio-ready sheen without losing any of the grit that made Foreigner dangerous.
Reception
- The album performed strongly on the Billboard 200, certifying Foreigner's status as one of the dominant rock acts of the late seventies commercial landscape.
- The title track 'Head Games' became a significant Top 40 hit, receiving heavy rock radio airplay and helping drive album sales across North America.
- Critical reception was mixed in some quarters, with certain rock press voices feeling the production leaned toward the polished and commercial, though the band's fanbase embraced the record enthusiastically.
Significance
- 'Dirty White Boy' stands as one of the album's defining moments — a hard-driving, bluesy rocker that showed Foreigner could bring raw swagger alongside their arena-polished sound, and it became one of the band's signature tracks.
- The album represents a pivotal moment in the evolution of arena rock and melodic hard rock, capturing that late-seventies sweet spot where hard rock craftsmanship and FM radio accessibility were in perfect, uneasy tension.
- 'Head Games' as a title track cemented a particular kind of lyrical territory for Foreigner — the psychological drama of modern relationships set against big, anthemic rock production — helping define a template that would echo through the early eighties rock era.
Tracklist
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A1 Dirty White Boy 136
3:37
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A2 Love On The Telephone 134
3:18
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A3 Women 154
3:25
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A4 I'll Get Even With You 120
3:40
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A5 Seventeen 135
4:33
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B1 Head Games 108
3:37
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B2 The Modern Day 122
3:26
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B3 Blinded By Science 117
4:54
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B4 Do What You Like 126
3:58
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B5 Rev On The Red Line 110
3:35
Artist Details
Foreigner burst onto the scene in 1976, born from the collision of British and American rock talent when veteran musician Mick Jones teamed up with Ian McDonald and a handful of hard-driving Americans in New York City to craft a sound that was equal parts polished melodic rock and raw arena power. These cats didn't waste any time — their self-titled debut dropped like a thunderclap and gave the world instant classics like "Feels Like the First Time" and "Cold as Ice," cementing them as one of the defining acts of the classic rock and album-oriented rock formats that ruled the late '70s and into the '80s. Foreigner's ability to blend muscular guitar riffs with soaring, emotionally charged hooks made them a commercial juggernaut, and their ballad "I Want to Know What Love Is" from 1984 transcended rock radio altogether, becoming a soul-stirring cultural touchstone that proved this band had more depth than anyone gave them credit for.
