I Want to Know What Love Is by Foreigner is the most commercially successful single the band ever released.
It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and on charts across Europe, powered by a gospel choir and one of the most emotionally direct vocal performances in rock history.
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Written by Mick Jones, the guitarist and co-founder of Foreigner, I Want to Know What Love Is was released as the lead single from their fifth studio album, Agent Provocateur, in 1984.
It became the band’s highest-charting single and one of the most enduring power ballads in rock music.
Produced by Mick Jones and Alex Sadkin, Agent Provocateur reached the top ten in multiple countries.
It remains Foreigner’s best-selling album.
| Song Title | I Want to Know What Love Is |
| Artist | Foreigner |
| Album | Agent Provocateur (1984) |
| Released | 1984 (single) |
| Written By | Mick Jones |
| Producer | Mick Jones, Alex Sadkin |
| Label | Atlantic Records |
| Chart Peak | #1 US Billboard Hot 100 |
Table of Contents
- What Is I Want to Know What Love Is About?
- The Vibe: Genre, Mood, and Search Intent
- Behind the Lyrics: The Story of I Want to Know What Love Is
- Technical Corner: Instruments and Production
- Legacy and Charts: Why This Classic Still Matters
- Listener’s Note: A Personal Take
- Watch: I Want to Know What Love Is by Foreigner
- Collector’s Corner: Own a Piece of Rock History
- Frequently Asked Questions About I Want to Know What Love Is
- You Might Also Like
What Is I Want to Know What Love Is About?
The lyric is a direct and unguarded plea for emotional understanding.
The person singing has been through heartache and pain and is not sure they can face it again.
They need something real.
They need someone to show them what love actually means rather than what they have experienced before.
Mick Jones wrote the words in solitude late at night.
He described the experience as feeling as though the song came from somewhere beyond himself.
That sense of something larger than the individual is built into the arrangement.
The New Jersey Mass Choir enters in the final third of the recording and elevates the plea into something communal.
What begins as one man’s question becomes a collective longing by the time the song ends.
The emotional arc is unusual for a rock band of Foreigner’s commercial profile.
It is this willingness to be genuinely vulnerable that made I Want to Know What Love Is a recording that has outlasted its era.
The Vibe: Genre, Mood, and Search Intent
The piano introduction arrives quietly before the full arrangement builds behind it.
- Genre: Rock, Power Ballad, Pop Rock
- Mood: Vulnerable, Hopeful, Emotionally Searching
- Tempo: Slow (~65 BPM)
- Best For: Power ballad playlists, 1980s rock collections, emotional rock anthems
- Similar To: Foreigner “Waiting for a Girl Like You”, Journey “Open Arms”, REO Speedwagon “Can’t Fight This Feeling”
- Fans Also Search: Foreigner discography, Agent Provocateur album, Lou Gramm vocals, 1984 rock ballads
Behind the Lyrics: The Story of I Want to Know What Love Is
Mick Jones wrote I Want to Know What Love Is alone in the middle of the night during a period of personal reflection.
He has spoken about feeling as though the song was almost handed to him rather than constructed.
The result is a lyric that carries the unpolished honesty of something written without self-consciousness.
Jones brought the song to the Agent Provocateur sessions and built the arrangement around the emotional arc of the vocal.
The decision to include the New Jersey Mass Choir was a significant one.
The choir’s entry in the final section transforms the track from a personal confession into something that sounds like a congregation answering a call.
The choir also released their own version of the song, a testament to how effectively the gospel element worked.
Lou Gramm delivered the vocal performance of his career on this recording.
His voice carries weight and restraint in equal measure, holding back enough that the emotional release of the chorus lands harder for the contrast.
The single was released in November 1984 and reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 within weeks.
It also topped the charts in the United Kingdom and several other European markets.
Technical Corner: Instruments and Production
The arrangement of I Want to Know What Love Is builds carefully from a sparse opening to a full-choir climax.
The piano carries the introduction and establishes the emotional register of the track immediately.
Synthesizer layers fill the mid-section, adding texture without crowding the vocal.
Lou Gramm’s performance sits at the centre of the mix throughout.
Mick Jones and Alex Sadkin’s production keeps the arrangement restrained in the verses so that the choir’s entrance in the final section feels like a genuine arrival.
The contrast between the quiet opening and the full gospel climax is not accidental.
It is the structural argument of the recording: the search for love requires patience, and the answer, when it comes, is overwhelming.
The production is polished in the way that mid-1980s Atlantic Records releases were, but it never loses the emotional directness of the original composition.
Legacy and Charts: Why This Classic Still Matters
I Want to Know What Love Is reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1984 and held the position for two weeks.
It also topped the UK Singles Chart, making it a transatlantic number one.
The song has been covered by Mariah Carey and Wynonna Judd, among others, extending its reach across multiple generations and genres.
It appears regularly on lists of the greatest rock ballads and the greatest songs of the 1980s.
Rolling Stone included it in their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The song has appeared in films, television programmes, and at weddings and personal milestones for four decades.
Its continued presence in popular culture reflects the universality of the question it asks.
Love, and the desire to understand it, does not go out of fashion.
Listener’s Note: A Personal Take
The choir is the reason this recording works at the scale it does.
Gramm’s vocal alone would have produced a strong ballad.
With the choir answering him in the final section, the recording becomes something that feels shared rather than witnessed.
Most listeners do not analyse that distinction consciously.
They feel it.
That is the difference between a good ballad and an enduring one.
Watch: I Want to Know What Love Is by Foreigner
Collector’s Corner: Own a Piece of Rock History
Foreigner: Agent Provocateur (1984)
Own the album that gave the world I Want to Know What Love Is.
Original Atlantic Records pressings and remastered editions available.
Frequently Asked Questions About I Want to Know What Love Is
Who wrote I Want to Know What Love Is?
It was written entirely by Mick Jones, Foreigner’s guitarist and co-founder.
Jones wrote it alone late at night and described the experience as feeling as though the song was almost given to him rather than composed in the usual way.
What is the song about?
The lyric is a direct plea for emotional understanding and connection.
The person singing has been through heartache and is asking to be shown what genuine love feels like.
What album is it on?
It appears on Agent Provocateur, Foreigner’s fifth studio album, released in 1984 on Atlantic Records.
The album reached the top ten in multiple countries.
Who produced the recording?
It was produced by Mick Jones and Alex Sadkin.
Sadkin had previously worked with Grace Jones and Talking Heads before joining the Agent Provocateur sessions.
Who sang lead vocals?
Lou Gramm sang lead vocals on the recording.
It is widely regarded as one of the finest performances of his career.
Who is the choir on the recording?
The New Jersey Mass Choir provided the gospel backing in the final section of the song.
Their contribution was so effective that they also released their own version of the recording.
Has I Want to Know What Love Is been covered by other artists?
Yes.
Notable cover versions include recordings by Mariah Carey and Wynonna Judd, among others.
Is it still performed live?
Yes.
The song is a cornerstone of Foreigner’s live set and one of the most reliably emotional moments in any performance they give.
You Might Also Like
Foreigner: Cold as Ice (1977)
The hard-edged early Foreigner single that demonstrated Mick Jones’s ability to write memorable, direct rock songs long before the band’s ballad era.
Hearing both recordings together reveals the remarkable range of what Jones built over a decade of writing.
Hall & Oates: Maneater (1982)
Another number one hit from the same era that proved American rock acts could dominate the charts with sophisticated songwriting and immaculate production.
Both recordings defined early-1980s commercial rock at its most accomplished.
Foreigner: Hot Blooded (1978)
The driving rock single from Foreigner’s early commercial peak, showing the band’s hard rock credentials before they moved toward the ballad sound of the mid-1980s.
Together, both recordings show why Foreigner remained a major force in rock for over a decade.
Decades on, I Want to Know What Love Is by Foreigner endures as one of the most emotionally honest power ballads in rock music history, a recording that asked a universal question with an openness that audiences across four decades have been unable to resist.