Inside Information is the sixth studio album by American rock band Foreigner, released in 1987. The album hit #15 on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart and was certified Platinum in the U.S. for sales exceeding one million copies.
"Say You Will" was released as the album's first single. Allmusic later noted that the single was a "good example" of the band's "balancing act" as "the guitar-heavy style of their early work gave way to slick arrangements that pushed electronics to the fore...temper(ing) its rock guitar edge...and Lou Gramm's quasi-operatic vocals...by thick layers of chiming synthesizers and an array of electronic textures." The single reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became their fourth #1 hit on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, holding the top spot for four weeks. The song also became the band's third-highest charting hit in Germany, where it reached #22, faring even better in Switzerland, the Netherlands, and particularly Norway, where it reached #4. A rare CD single featured an extended remix version of the track.
The second single, "I Don't Want to Live Without You", reached #5 on the Hot 100. Markedly softer than any of their work to date, the record was their first and only #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart, after the more rousing ballads "Waiting for a Girl Like You" and "I Want To Know What Love Is" had reached #5 and #3 on that chart respectively. Allmusic would later observe that while "the end result lacked the distinctive rock touches of past Foreigner ballads," Lou Gramm "contributes a lead vocal that avoids histrionics in favor of an emotional but very smooth delivery" over "washes of synthesizer...fleshed out by some meditative electric piano riffs". Nevertheless, the song charted at mainstream rock radio, where it peaked at #18. The #5 Hot 100 peak was their best showing in six singles, yet despite being followed up by more impassioned, up-tempo material it would be their last major pop hit to date.
Further singles from the album included "Heart Turns to Stone", which had peaked at #7 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in an earlier non-commercial release only to rock radio but only managed #56 on the Hot 100 several months later, and the harder "Can't Wait", which matched the #18 Mainstream Rock Tracks charting of "I Don't Want To Live Without You" but failed to crack the Hot 100. It was the last album to feature the classic '80s core lineup of Gramm, Jones, Wills and Elliott. The following year saw a successful solo album and singles from Lou Gramm and found Mick Jones releasing an album and producing for artists including Billy Joel.Inside Information is the sixth studio album by American rock band Foreigner, released in 1987. The album hit #15 on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart and was certified Platinum in the U.S. for sales exceeding one million copies.
"Say You Will" was released as the album's first single. Allmusic later noted that the single was a "good example" of the band's "balancing act" as "the guitar-heavy style of their early work gave way to slick arrangements that pushed electronics to the fore...temper(ing) its rock guitar edge...and Lou Gramm's quasi-operatic vocals...by thick layers of chiming synthesizers and an array of electronic textures." The single reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became their fourth #1 hit on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, holding the top spot for four weeks. The song also became the band's third-highest charting hit in Germany, where it reached #22, faring even better in Switzerland, the Netherlands, and particularly Norway, where it reached #4. A rare CD single featured an extended remix version of the track.
The second single, "I Don't Want to Live Without You", reached #5 on the Hot 100. Markedly softer than any of their work to date, the record was their first and only #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart, after the more rousing ballads "Waiting for a Girl Like You" and "I Want To Know What Love Is" had reached #5 and #3 on that chart respectively. Allmusic would later observe that while "the end result lacked the distinctive rock touches of past Foreigner ballads," Lou Gramm "contributes a lead vocal that avoids histrionics in favor of an emotional but very smooth delivery" over "washes of synthesizer...fleshed out by some meditative electric piano riffs". Nevertheless, the song charted at mainstream rock radio, where it peaked at #18. The #5 Hot 100 peak was their best showing in six singles, yet despite being followed up by more impassioned, up-tempo material it would be their last major pop hit to date.
Further singles from the album included "Heart Turns to Stone", which had peaked at #7 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in an earlier non-commercial release only to rock radio but only managed #56 on the Hot 100 several months later, and the harder "Can't Wait", which matched the #18 Mainstream Rock Tracks charting of "I Don't Want To Live Without You" but failed to crack the Hot 100. It was the last album to feature the classic '80s core lineup of Gramm, Jones, Wills and Elliott. The following year saw a successful solo album and singles from Lou Gramm and found Mick Jones releasing an album and producing for artists including Billy Joel.false2022-11-22 07:28:13Inside Information7.319871987-01-011987-01-0145AorArena RockClassic RockHard RockPop RockRock11132321108840ab8fa54-3667-4916-a0fa-b8266e12402c160629ab-ec18-4931-8c95-02cb92d06186f79a9d2a-7dd2-31b8-a1aa-171dc7d1507d/media/data/media5/Music/Foreigner/Inside Information (1987)/folder.jpgForeignerAlbumArtistForeignerArtistForeignerForeignerForeigner is a British-American rock band formed in New York City in 1976 by guitarist Mick Jones, vocalist Lou Gramm, drummer Dennis Elliott, keyboardist Al Greenwood, bassist Ed Gagliardi and multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald, the last of whom was also a founding member of King Crimson. Foreigner is one of the world's best-selling bands of all time, with worldwide sales of more than 80 million records, including 37.5 million in the US.
Jones came up with the band's name as he, Elliott and McDonald were British, while Gramm, Greenwood and Gagliardi were American, meaning at least half of the band would be foreigners no matter what country they were in. In 1977, Foreigner released its self-titled debut album, the first of six consecutive albums (including the 7x platinum 1982 greatest hits album Records) to be certified multi-platinum and go Top 10 in the US. The album produced two US Top 10 singles in "Feels Like the First Time" and "Cold as Ice". Their 1978 follow-up, Double Vision, was even more successful, and included two more US hits in "Hot Blooded" and the title track. Rick Wills replaced Gagliardi on bass before Foreigner recorded their third album, Head Games (1979), which included the US Top 20 singles "Dirty White Boy" and the title track. After the departures of McDonald and Greenwood reduced the band to a quartet, their next album 4 (1981) hit No. 1 for 10 weeks in the US, and became Foreigner's break-through album in the UK, going Top 5 there. The album produced three hit singles: "Urgent", "Waiting for a Girl Like You" and "Juke Box Hero". In 1984, Foreigner issued their fifth studio album Agent Provocateur, which reached No. 1 in the UK and included their biggest hit single "I Want to Know What Love Is", a No. 1 hit in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, No. 3 in Germany and Top 10 in numerous other countries. A second hit from the album, "That Was Yesterday", went Top 20 in the US.
After a break, Foreigner released Inside Information (1987). Despite two more US Top 10 hits in "Say You Will" and "I Don't Want to Live Without You", it became their first album not to go multi-platinum or Top 10 in the US, achieving single platinum sales and peaking at No. 15. Since 1990, the band has undergone several more line-up changes, including the departures of Elliot and Wills in 1991, while Gramm left the band in 1990, returned in 1992 and left again in 2003. The three studio albums the band have released during these years - Unusual Heat (1991), Mr. Moonlight (1994), and Can't Slow Down (2009) - were not major sellers, although the 1992 greatest hits album The Very Best ... and Beyond, which included three new songs, did go 2x platinum in the US and gold in the UK.
Since 2003, Mick Jones has been the only founding member still involved with Foreigner, though there have been several instances of the band touring without him in recent years. Two of the founding members, Ed Gagliardi and Ian McDonald, died in 2014 and 2022 respectively. Since 2013, there have been occasional quasi-reunion tours, concerts, and other guest appearances from varying combinations of former band members Gramm, Elliot, Wills, Greenwood, and (before his death) McDonald. In 2024, Foreigner was selected as a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee.