Today Mick Jones, Foreigner's guitarist is celebrating his 71st birthday. Ponder that for a moment. I mean, I know that these guys were a bit older when they had a string of hits but still, 71 doesn't exactly seem possible. I remember when "Urgent" first came out in the summer of 1981. It was catchy and really the perfect single off of their 4 album to lead with. At the time, Foreigner was a pretty well established rock group but this album helped them to crossover onto the pop charts where they would spend years making their presence known.
"Urgent" was something different though. It was one of those songs that everyone loved after 30 seconds in and I suspect that it probably still has that affect to this day on those not familiar with Foreigner's extensive catalog. Back in 1981 I had a little transistor radio that I carried around with me and it was an era where we all really did listen to the radio for hours just waiting for your favorite DJ to play your favorite songs. "Urgent" was certainly one of those songs for me.
Check out the video below. It was made when MTV was still brand spanking new and every artist out there was trying to figure out how to perform a song that could be shown every few hours on loop if they were really lucky.