A classic rock band is set to release a brand-new song with its original lead singer.
Foreigner bassist Jeff Pilson told Blabbermouth that the group’s 1981 album “4″ will be reissued this fall. It will feature Dolby Atmos remixes of the multi-platinum release’s original tracks, including “Urgent,” “Waiting for a Girl Like You” and “Juke Box Hero,” plus a 1982 live concert recording and a new song that original singer Lou Gramm started writing during that era.
“It’s pretty amazing,” Pilson said. “We found an unfinished song in all the files. The song had one verse in it, and Lou had sung one verse and he sang the chorus. And it was great, but it was only one verse. He was mumbling the second verse. So we called Lou. We said, ‘What do you think about finishing and singing the song?’ So he said, ‘Absolutely.‘"
Gramm wrote and finished two verses, recorded new vocals for the track, and added cowbell.
“We have now a new, old Foreigner song that will be on the Foreigner ‘4’ release coming out in September,“ Pilson told Blabbermouth. ”The song is called ‘Fool If You Love Him,’ and it came out great."
It will be Foreigner’s second new song with Gramm in a year, after unearthing a ‘90s track he and co-founding guitarist Mick Jones worked on together. “Turning Back the Time” was released in August as part of a greatest hits collection celebrating the band’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Gramm, a Rochester native who currently lives in Webster, N.Y., recently told Billboard that “Fool If You Love Him” is one of many unheard songs and unfinished demos from Foreigner’s archives.
“For every Foreigner album we always recorded three or four songs more than we needed, and we usually chose 10 songs and rest were either done or almost done but were excellent,” Gramm told Billboard. “They fall by the wayside on times like this. There doesn’t seem to ever be a lack of material.”
Gramm, the original voice of Foreigner hits like “Hot Blooded,” “Cold As Ice,” and “Feels Like the First Time,” will also be touring with the band at upcoming South American concerts. Current lead singer Kelly Hansen said “residency issues” are preventing him from performing outside of the U.S., so Gramm will share vocals with band member Luis Maldonado.
Gramm, 74, left Foreigner in 1990 and again in 2002, but has periodically reunited with the band including at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in October. He also performed with Jones, 80, for their induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2013.
Jones no longer performs due to Parkinson’s disease, but Gramm appears to have put retirement plans on hold to help Foreigner celebrate its upcoming 50th anniversary next year. The band will also be revamping its stage musical, “Juke Box Hero."
“There was almost like a meeting of the minds and we all kind of realized Foreigner is bigger than all of us,” Pilson told Blabbermouth of Foreigner’s Rock Hall induction. “It’s a power bigger than all of us. It’s the music that we’ve all tapped into, we’re all a small part of it, but we’re all part of this greater whole. And the fact that [Gramm is] coming down as a special guest to sing four songs with us is pretty amazing. And the other thing is, he loves [Luis], and he’s been so supportive and so endorsing of [Luis] singing the rest of the set.
“It’s just been wonderful. We wanna pinch ourselves. We just feel so fortunate that we have this opportunity.”
