Writers: Lou Gramm and Mick Jones
Producers: Roy Thomas Baker, Mick Jones, and Ian McDonald
Recorded: Spring and Summer 1979 in New York City
Released: Fall 1979
| Players: | Mick Jones — guitar, keyboards Rick Wills — bass Al Greenwood — keyboards Ian McDonald — guitar Dennis Elliott — drums |
| Album: | Head Games (Atlantic) |
The second single and title track from Foreigner's third album, “Head Games” reached Number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1979.
Frontman Lou Gramm's high-testosterone vocals are a plea to a mate to stop playing “head games” with him.
Head Games was the first Foreigner album to feature bassist Rick Wills, a veteran of Family and Peter Frampton's Camel, who was hired by Foreigner leader Mick Jones to replace original bassist Ed Gagliardi. Wills was traveling to the U.S. to collect debts Frampton's management owed him when he was contacted by Jones to audition.
The Head Games album — which was coproduced by Queen and Cars collaborator Roy Thomas Baker — quickly sold two million copies.
Even with that kind of success, Head Games was seen as a bit of letdown from its predecessors, which had sold four and five million copies each.
It was the last Foreigner album to include founding members Ian McDonald and Al Greenwood, both of whom left the band in the fall of 1980, following the tour to support Head Games.