FOREIGNER - FEELS LIKE THE FIRST TIME

Released :  March 1977

Charted:  UK: #39   US: #4 

This was Foreigner's debut release and their first hit in both the US and UK, despite originally flopping on its initial British release. Mick Jones, who is the British founder of Foreigner (named for the bi-nationality of the band - the other members were American), wrote the song himself. 

Jones told: "'Feels Like The First Time' was written about a bit of a change in my life. I was coming out of a previous marriage with somebody I'd met in France. I'd gone back to England and then finally made the journey to America while I was in the band Spooky Tooth. And to me it was this challenge of really going for a new start in my life. And that just came naturally out of the blue. People probably thought, Well, this is a song that he's written specifically for this album. In hindsight I guess that's a natural feeling, but to me it was signifying a new start. I'd met somebody, I got re-married and moved with her to America, and that was the song that described that experience."

This was the first song penned by Mick Jones that he ever heard played on the radio. He described his feelings to Lords of Metal on hearing it for the first time: "I was driving to Long Island to go to the sea when this song came on. I was on the bridge and in my mirror you could see the big city. On the radio they said, there is a new band and they have a great song which we will play now and that was my song. I turned the car window down and I started to drive very fast. I will never forget that moment!"

This was song that got Foreigner a record deal in America. They were known as Trigger when they sent a tape with this track to Atlantic Records, which was home to Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and Yes. A young executive named John Kalodner liked the song, saw them perform, and signed them to a deal. Kalodner would later become famous for signing Aerosmith to Geffen Records in the '80s and engineering their comeback.

Billboard called "Feels Like the First Time" "tasteful, high energy rock" with "a direct, happy, love lyric." Billboard called the guitars "booming" and Gramm's lead vocal "intense but controlled." Cash Box said that "the heavy rock feeling is there at the bottom, but glittering backing vocals and keyboard work add the patina necessary to soothe top 40" and also commented on the "spine-tingling guitar chords" that open the song.”