1987 Classic Ranked Among ‘Greatest Mainstream Rock Songs of All Time'-‘Last Great Single of the Album-Rock Era'
In 1987, Lou Gramm went solo with "Midnight Blue." The founding Foreigner frontman's lead single from his debut album Ready or Not peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 18, 1987. Decades later, Billboard ranked "Midnight Blue" at No. 97 on its coveted list of 100 Greatest of All Time Mainstream Rock songs.
While not a Foreigner song, "Midnight Blue" was later included on the Rhino Records collection, Jukebox Heroes: The Foreigner Anthology, where it got the ultimate praise from esteemed Allmusicmusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine. Noting that it was "terrific to be able to have all Foreigner and Foreigner-related songs in one place" on the two-disc set, Erlewine added, "Especially since Gramm's peerless ‘Midnight Blue' is not just the best thing here, it's the last great single of the album-rock era."
Foreigner co-founder rejected ‘Midnight Blue'
Gramm wrote "Midnight Blue" with Foreigner guitarist Bruce Turgon, along with another song, "Heartache." At the time, he waited for bandmate Mick Jones to get back from vacation so he could present the new music to him.
"We were writing that song, and I knew that there was going to be another Foreigner album coming up," Gramm told Rock History Music. "So when Mick finally got back from his ocean tour, whatever it was, Bruce and I took ‘Midnight Blue and ‘Heartache' over to him and proposed that those two songs be on the next Foreigner album."
"Now they were done, there was no room for Mick on there, you know, they were done. It basically was Bruce and myself," Gramm clarified of the songs. "And he heard the rough tape of ‘Midnight Blue,' and he had a funny look on his face, you know, and he picked up his guitar and tried to play those chords. There's very strange fingering on that, and Mick is the master of that. I watched him try and duplicate those chords for 20 minutes and finally just take his guitar and put it down and he says, ‘It's all right, but I don't think it's for us.'"
"I mean, it would not take a genius to pick up on what that song had …but he turned it down, and I think I think he knew it was a good song, but because it didn't come from him, he didn't want anything to do with it," Gramm added. "And he dismissed it, and that song went to number five on the charts and was the Billboard most played rock song for that year."
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Lou Gramm explained why he wrote his own music
Ironically, Gramm's decision to start a solo career came from his dissatisfaction with some of Jones's songwriting. Speaking with Goldmine magazine, the music legend recalled, "As great as a guitar player that Mick Jones is, there was a point in time in Foreigner's history when he started to become enamored with synthesizers."
"I'm a guitar lover," Gramm continued. "But Mick was starting to write songs that were synthesizer and keyboard based. Most of the keyboard songs were mid-tempo or ballads, and I was becoming very frustrated with the direction that we were taking at that point in time, because I joined a rock band."
"On our fifth album, Agent Provocateur, with 'I Want to Know What Love Is,' you could see that the emphasis was put on the mid-tempo and slow songs," the Foreigner legend said. "There were rock songs as well, but I could tell that there wasn't the time taken and dedication to making them special. I was looking for a special rock hit."
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This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 5:48 AM.