FOREIGNER - JUKE BOX HERO

Released :  October 2, 1981 (UK)  January 27, 1982 (US)  

Charted:  UK: #48    US: #26 

"Juke Box Hero" is a song by British-American rock band Foreigner written by Lou Gramm and Mick Jones and released as the album “4” third single. It first entered the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in July 1981 and eventually reached #3 on that chart. Lou Gramm told that it is one of his favorite songs to perform, but also the hardest to sing live.

The song focuses on a boy unable to purchase a ticket to a sold-out rock concert. Listening from outside, he hears "one guitar" and has an epiphany, leading him to buy a guitar and learn to play it. He realizes that with the guitar he has a chance to achieve musical stardom. The song then goes on to describe the struggle he has to stay on top of the music charts, which makes him a "Juke Box Hero". He eventually encounters another fan outside the stage door at one of his concerts, who reminds him of himself and how it all began.

Jones said: "That stemmed from an experience that we had, I think it was in Cincinnati. We'd gone to the arena for a sound check, and it was pouring down rain, and there were a bunch of fans waiting at the door when we went in. When we came back for the show later on, all that was left was one lonely fan, a young guy waiting out there in the rain, soaked to the skin. I thought, well, he's waiting like five hours here, maybe we'll take him in and give him a glimpse of what happens backstage at a show. And this kid was just mesmerized with everything. I saw this look in his eyes, and I thought, he's seeing this for the first time, he's having this experience. And I just imagined what was going through his mind. And I'd been toying with this title, 'Juke Box Hero,' I thought it was almost a satire on what we did and how it was perceived from an audience level, and public. That's how it originated."

Before he was a singer, Lou Gramm was a drummer. The menacing beat at the beginning of the song that builds to combustion is his influence: he says that when he writes songs, he starts with the beat and looks for interesting rhythms.

In 2018, Foreigner launched Jukebox Hero, the musical, at some theaters in Canada with hopes of bringing the show to Broadway. Sixteen Foreigner songs are used in the production, which is set in a Pennsylvania factory town where one of their own becomes a rock star.