"That Was Yesterday" by Foreigner

Song#:  2253
Date:  03/16/1985
Debut:  47
Peak:  12
Weeks:  15
Genre:  Rock



Pop Bits:  Foreigner just had the biggest hit of their career with the #1 "I Want to Know What Love Is," which was the first single from their album Agent Provocateur. To follow it up, the band released this mid-tempo rock tune. It was another hit for them at Rock, getting to #4, but it stopped just shy of reaching the Pop Top 10. It also got to #24 at AC. The hits would help the album get to #4 and eventually it would be certified triple-platinum, but that was quite a sharp drop from their previous LP, 4, which hit #1 and sold over six-million copies. That album had more to promote sales since four of its singles made the Pop Top 40 with two of them going Top 10. In fact, all four of their studio albums prior to Agent Provocateur would sell more copies. It would also be their last studio album to go multi-platinum.

ReduxReview:  I didn't care all that much for "I Want to Know What Love Is," but I thought it would be interesting to see what they picked out for a follow up to that big hit. It ended up being this near-soft rocker and I have to say it was a pretty good choice. It's a solid pop song that nicely bridged the gap between the big balladry of "I Want to Know" and the band's more harder rocking tunes. I liked the song, but have always thought that it had a weird ending. The outro chorus is chuggin' along quite well and then it just kind of abruptly stops. I think a fade out would have been better or just even a more definitive and stronger end to the song. Regardless, I've always liked this tune.

ReduxRating:  7/10

Trivia:  Although the majority of the band were from England, they had more success on the US charts than they did in the UK. While they had a succession of five multi-platinum studio albums in the US along with nine Top 10 singles, in the UK they could only manage two Top 10 albums and two Top 10 singles. Their best effort there would be Agent Provocateur, which would hit #1 as did "I Want to Know What Love Is."

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