Foreigner – Feels Like The First Time

“Feels Like The First Time” was Foreigner’s debut single from the album ‘Foreigner’ (1977).

“Feels Like the First Time” – Single by Foreigner from the album Foreigner
B-side: “Woman, Oh Woman”
Released: March 1977
Recorded: 1976
Label: Atlantic
Songwriter: Mick Jones
Producers: Gary Lyons, John Sinclair
Charted No.4 in US and No.39 in UK

Billboard called “Feels Like the First Time” “tasteful, high energy rock” with “a direct, happy, love lyric.” Billboard called the guitars “booming” and Gramm’s lead vocal “intense but controlled.” Cash Box said that “the heavy rock feeling is there at bottom, but glittering backing vocals and keyboard work add the patina necessary to soothe top 40” and also commented on the “spine-tingling guitar chords” that open the song. Record World said that Foreigner “has elegantly captured the magic of power pop with their first effort.”

The song features the vocals of Lou Gramm, who was added to the band by Mick Jones after auditioning about 50 singers. Jones told Billboard magazine that he first came across Gramm’s voice while he was writing this song: “When I heard his voice on an album that I’d been given of his band, Black Sheep, I was actually in the midst of writing ‘Feels Like the First Time.’ I’d had a few demos from people who’d sent stuff in, and I was listening to them. The moment I heard Lou’s voice, it clicked.”