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Urgent" is a song by the
Anglo-
American rock band Foreigner, and the first single from their hit album
4 in 1981.
Recording
Foreigner went into the studio with producer
Robert John "Mutt" Lange, best known at the time as producer of
hard rock band
AC/DC. Foreigner's sound wasn't quite as heavy, and the band worked with then-unknown
Thomas Dolby to program and play
synthesizer. Dolby's work can be heard on "Urgent", along with a saxophone solo by
Motown great
Junior Walker.
Chart performance
The song entered the U.S. pop charts the week ending July 4, 1981, and reached #4 on the
Billboard Hot 100 chart, holding that spot for the entire month of September. "Urgent" hit #1 on the
Billboard Rock Tracks chart, a position it held for four weeks.
Whitburn, Joel (2004).
The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 8th Edition (Billboard Publications), page 234.
"Urgent" was the most successful single from the
4 album on
album-oriented rock radio, though it was outsold by the album's next single, "
Waiting for a Girl Like You", which reached #2 on the
Billboard Hot 100 in November 1981 and remained at that spot through the end of the following January, for a total of ten weeks, being certified Gold.
4 went Gold and Platinum during the chart run of the "Urgent" single. The album has since been certified multi-platinum by the
RIAA, for selling over six million...
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