Foreigner’s 1981 hit ‘Waiting for a Girl Like You’ became one of the band’s biggest songs, yet guitarist and songwriter Mick Jones later said the group had little control over its final release. The song’s success mattered because it helped cement Foreigner’s commercial status, but its production and release were heavily shaped by outside decisions.

Jones wrote the track with vocalist Lou Gramm and initially intended it to have a different feel, but producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange’s involvement changed the recording process. The single reached number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 and remained there for ten weeks, held off the top spot by Olivia Newton-John’s ‘Physical’. Its polished sound and long chart run made it a defining song from the band’s album 4.