Foreigner Shares Unreleased Track ‘Turning Back the Time’ From Upcoming Compilation

Foreigner waxes nostalgic and reflective on its first new song in eight years, a track from the band’s vaults.

Timed to the group’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction on Oct. 19, “Turning Back the Time” appears on a new 18-song, best-of compilation of the same name that releases Oct. 4 via Rhino.

“There are a number of songs that Lou Gramm and I wrote together that have never seen the light of day,” Foreigner founder Mick Jones tells Billboard. “‘Turning Back the Time’ was co-written with Marti Frederiksen. Marti and I recently revisited and reworked the song. Because of the time that had passed we were able to go back to it with a fresh perspective. The sentiment of the song spoke to us now more than ever and with the upcoming Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction we thought it an ideal time to let the world hear it.”

The upbeat and melodic track weighs in at just under three minutes, with lyrics about “the times I was growing up and the road that brought me here,” and how seeing the Beatles on TV “changed everything deep inside of me.” It also references “the double vision day,” a nod to Foreigner’s second album. Particularly poignant in light of Jones’ battle with Parkinson’s disease, which has kept him off stage for the last few years, the chorus intones, “There’s something missing my life, so I’m turning back the time.”

The track was first demoed back in 1996, shortly after Jones and Frederiksen collaborated on songs for the 1998 movie Strange Fruit. The two also began writing material for Foreigner, with Gramm joining the process for some of those, including “Turning Back the Time.” Jones and Frederiksen co-produced the recording earlier this year with both playing guitar, Jones adding keyboards, Frederiksen on bass and his son Evan on drums. Gramm’s vocals were taken from the original demo; he left the band for a second and final time in 2003.

The album’s other 17 tracks draw from Foreigner’s nine studio albums, including “When It Comes to Love” with current frontman Kelly Hansen.

There’s no word on any future plans for additional unfinished Foreigner material that’s in the vaults. Jones told Billboard in May that, “There are a number of songs that are demos I wrote with Lou. A couple of them are quite promising. Some written with Marti are lying around. I’ve been going through cassette tapes of demos; some I think don’t deserve to see the light of day.” Jones adds that he’s also finished mixing and mastering a solo album, Shelter From the Storm, that he hopes to release “at some point soon.”

Gramm, meanwhile, has often spoken about “a whole album’s worth of songs” from the early 2000s that he and Jones wrote and only recorded in rough form. “They’re great songs…some of our very best songs,” Gramm told Billboard earlier this year. “There were about eight or nine of them. We didn’t have a record company then, so we were waiting to see what happened. Then Mick and I had a huge falling out, and I left the band…. So now Mick’s got the copy and I don’t have one and I don’t know if he’s ever gonna do anything with them. I kind of doubt it, but I would like to at least listen to those roughs that we did. Those were great ideas.”

In the meantime, Jones, Gramm and their former bandmates are preparing for the Rock Hall induction, one of the most highly anticipated since Foreigner was long considered one of the shrine’s greatest snubs. Producer Mark Ronson, Jones’ son-in-law, put together a video campaign with Rock Hall members such as Paul McCartney, Slash, Dave Grohl, Slash and Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers expressing disbelief that the group wasn’t in yet.

“Every year was the same thing, so eventually I didn’t really worry about it,” Jones told Billboard earlier this year. “I certainly haven’t been overly consumed by it…. I’ve had a great career and this is like the whipped cream and cherry on top.”

The Rock Hall induction ceremony will stream live from Cleveland via Disney+, with a truncated special slated for ABC later in the year.

The full track list for Turning Back the Time:

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