On 19 November 1984, Foreigner released “I Want to Know What Love Is” - the single from Agent Provocateur. Billboard Hot 100 #1 for two weeks, UK #1 for three weeks. Written in a single morning by Mick Jones, the band's guitarist, in a New York hotel. Backing vocals by the 20-voice New Jersey Mass Choir. Hymnic solo lines from Jennifer Holliday, then a newly-minted Tony Award winner. US sales: 3.5 million - Foreigner's biggest hit by a country mile, and one of the 20 best-selling songs of 1985.
Mick Jones and one Manhattan morning
By autumn 1984 Mick Jones was stuck. Foreigner had been recording their fifth album Agent Provocateur for nine months, and the centrepiece ballad had refused to show up. Lou Gramm wanted “an anthem” - not “another rock track”.
Early on the morning of 14 August 1984, Jones woke up at The Mayfair Regent on 65th Street. He walked to the lobby piano and wrote the core melody in 40 minutes. It came to him fully formed - Jones later called it “the first time a song came out of me complete”.
“Lou listened to the demo once and said - yes, that's it. No edits, no discussion. We knew it would be the album's centrepiece. Possibly the centrepiece of our careers”.
- Mick Jones, Classic Rock interview, 2007
Recording: Atlantic Studios, September-October 1984
Recording took place at Atlantic Studios in New York. Producers - Mick Jones, Alex Sadkin (the same Sadkin who produced Grace Jones's Nightclubbing and the Thompson Twins). Engineer: Michael Barbiero.
The line-up: Lou Gramm (vocals), Mick Jones (guitar + keys), Rick Wills (bass), Dennis Elliott (drums). Plus guests: Tom Bailey of the Thompson Twins on the bridge keys (he was in Sadkin's room in those weeks). Michael Jones (Mick's four-year-old son) bangs the piano at the end of the take - still audible in the album mix.
The key production call was to add the choir only after the track was finished. Jones wanted a spiritual lift. Sadkin proposed: “If you want an anthem, bring a real church choir in”. That's how the New Jersey Mass Choir appeared.
New Jersey Mass Choir: 20 voices in one day
The New Jersey Mass Choir is a 58-voice gospel ensemble founded in 1980 in Newark, New Jersey. Its director is Rev. Ben Moore. Sadkin booked Moore for a 16-hour session at Atlantic on 8 October 1984.
Jones picked 20 voices out of the 58 - the strongest soloists, including Jennifer Holliday (26, already a Tony winner for Dreamgirls in 1982). Holliday delivered the lead lines “I want you to show me”.
All the backing was cut in a single five-hour session: choir, Holliday, control takes. The choir's fee was $3,000 plus a 0.5% royalty. Over the following eight years, the choir collected more than $800,000 in royalties - extraordinary money for a session gospel group.
Anatomy of the sound
- Key: G♭ major (bridge in D♭ major)
- BPM: 67, 4/4
- Length: 5:03 (single), 5:02 (album)
- Main pad: Yamaha CS-80 + Roland Jupiter-8 layered
- Piano: Yamaha C7 grand - Mick Jones
- Guitar: solo - Jones, Fender Telecaster through a Mesa Boogie Mark II
- Drums: Dennis Elliott, Ludwig - snare-accented, gated reverb
- Backing vocals: 20 voices of New Jersey Mass Choir + Jennifer Holliday solo
- Producers: Mick Jones + Alex Sadkin
- Studio: Atlantic Studios, New York, September-October 1984
- Single release: 19 November 1984, Atlantic Records
Chart history: simultaneous #1 in US and UK
In the UK “I Want to Know What Love Is” hit #1 UK Singles Chart on 2 December 1984 and held for three weeks. In the US - #1 Billboard Hot 100 on 2 February 1985, two weeks at the top.
This was Foreigner's first and only US Hot 100 #1. In the UK - also their first and only. The band had existed since 1977 with several top-10 hits (“Cold as Ice”, “Waiting for a Girl Like You”), but the peak had stayed out of reach.
The Agent Provocateur album sold 3 million US copies - less than their previous 4 (1981, 7 million). But the success of a single song redefined Foreigner's public image: from now on they were “the band with that song”, not a late-70s rock group that had pivoted to synths.
Mariah Carey: full re-recording, 2009
In June 2009 Mariah Carey released a cover of “I Want to Know What Love Is” on Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel. Her version peaked at #34 Billboard - well below the original.
The curious part: Carey's version spent nine weeks at #1 in Brazil. On Brazilian radio in 2009-2010 Carey's track was the most-played item - over 10,000 spins. The reason: Carey recorded with a Brazilian team in Rio, and the producers pushed hard at Brazilian radio. Foreigner's original had never broken top-20 in Brazil.
What to listen for next
Gospel choir engineering in pop, 1984-1989: “I Want to Know What Love Is” (1984) → “Like a Prayer” Madonna (1989) → “The Greatest Love of All” Whitney Houston (1985). Three hits built on a gospel choir as emotion amplifier.
Foreigner before the mega-hit: “Cold as Ice” (1977) → “Waiting for a Girl Like You” (1981) → “I Want to Know What Love Is” (1984). Three steps from hard rock to soft-rock anthem.