![]() "I Want to Know What Love Is" was ranked as the number four Billboard Hot 100 single of 1985. The choir's single peaked at number 37 on the then- Hot Black Singles chart and number 12 on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart. Soon after Foreigner's single topped the charts, the New Jersey Mass Choir released its own similar-sounding version of the song on an album also titled I Want to Know What Love Is. The single's B-side, "Street Thunder (Marathon Theme)," is an instrumental track originally appearing on The Official Music of the XXIII Olympiad – Los Angeles 1984 and later on the band's 2-CD compilation Jukebox Heroes: The Foreigner Anthology (2000). This version contains a slightly longer intro and an extended vocal chorus/fadeout ending. The song was also issued as a 12-inch single with a longer running time of 6:23. Its dreamy, hypnotic feel is due in part to Lou Gramm's soulful lead vocals and the New Jersey Mass Choir's background vocals." The song has received positive retrospective reviews from critics, with Bret Adams of AllMusic writing: "It's not hard to see why it became Foreigner's first number one single. Mick Jones on recording with the choir. ![]() I was in tears, because my mum and dad were in the studio too, and it was so emotional. And it seemed to inspire them, because after that they did it in one take. So then they all got round in a circle, held hands and said The Lord's Prayer. We did a few takes, and it was good, but it was still a bit tentative. The song spent five weeks at number one in Australia and also hit the top of the charts in Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden, while peaking at number two in Switzerland and South Africa. This was the band's third of four number one singles on the Mainstream Rock chart. It was Foreigner's first and only pop chart-topper in either country, although the band had four number one Mainstream Rock hits and a number one adult contemporary radio hit in the US. "I Want to Know What Love Is" reached number one on the UK Singles Chart on January 15, 1985, displacing Band Aid's " Do They Know It's Christmas?", staying there for three weeks, and knocked Madonna's long-running " Like a Virgin" out of number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on February 2, 1985. Billboard said that the "dramatic mood piece grows out of quiet introspection into a full-blown production number with choir." Ĭash Box reviewed the single, calling it "a highly dramatic and ultimately very touching song which amply displays Foreigner’s musical talents and versatility." Cash Box specifically praised the band's performances, especially that of lead singer Gramm, who they said "delivers a moving and personal quality which captures the essence of the lyrics. Gramm speculated that the song was emotional to Jones because it "represented things in his own life that he hadn't been able to resolve, and he wasn't too sure he wanted to have millions of people hear about it. He just kept it all.Īccording to Gramm, Jones was originally reluctant to let Gramm hear his initial rough version of the song. Let's work it out.' I said, 'Five percent for me after all the work I did on the song?' I said, 'You should just keep it all.' And he didn't say anything. I was so stunned and crushed that he'd think I contributed next to nothing to that song.And you know what I told him after 95-5? I said, 'Five, Mick?' I said, 'You should just keep it all.' And he did. ![]() And I opened the little piece of paper that what he thought was, and he wrote down 95-5. I think I wrote down 65-35 - 35 for me, 65 for him. I felt we had worked our tails off to make that song what it is.When it was time to decide what the percentages were, I wrote down what I thought it should be and he wrote down what he thought it should be. And so we almost had to put the song away for a couple of weeks and come back to it again. There'd be moments where it was just magic and then we'd hit our head on something creatively that we couldn't get to the next point. "So I would drive over to his house and we would work on that song. ![]() home was about 15 minutes from my home," Gramm recalled. The song is also featured in a number of films. "I Want to Know What Love Is" has continued to garner critical acclaim, and is listed as one of Rolling Stone magazine's greatest songs of all time at number 476 in 2004 and at number 479 in 2010. It remains one of the band's best-known songs and most enduring radio hits, charting in the top 25 in 2000, 2001, and 2002 on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Recurrents chart. The song hit number one in both the United Kingdom and the United States and is the group's biggest hit to date. It was released in November 1984 as the lead single from their fifth album, Agent Provocateur. " I Want to Know What Love Is" is a power ballad by the British-American rock band Foreigner. Cover art released in some European territories
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