Lou Gramm

Lou Gramm
Lou Gramm performing live with Foreigner, Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, Maine, on October 23, 1979.
Background information
Birth name	Louis Andrew Grammatico
Born	(1950-05-02) May 2, 1950 Rochester, New York, US
Genres	Rock, Christian rock
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, musician
Instruments	Vocals, drums, percussion
Years active	1967–present
Labels	Atlantic Records Spectra Records
Associated acts	Foreigner, Shadow King, Black Sheep
Website	http://www.lou-gramm.com

Lou Gramm (born Louis Andrew Grammatico; May 2, 1950) is an American rock vocalist and songwriter best known for his role as the lead vocalist and co-writer of many of the songs for the rock band Foreigner. He also had a successful solo career. Gramm was the vocalist for many top-40 hits including "Cold as Ice", "Waiting for a Girl Like You", "I Want to Know What Love Is" and his solo hit "Midnight Blue". In 2009, the Lou Gramm Band released their self-titled album of Christian rock.

Biography

Pre-Foreigner Era

Gramm was born in Rochester, New York, the son of Nikki (Masetta), a singer, and Bennie Grammatico, a band leader and trumpeter. He attended Gates-Chili High School in Rochester, graduating with the class of 1968. He is also an alumnus of Monroe Community College in Rochester.

Gramm began his musical career in his mid-teens, playing in local Rochester bands, including St. James Infirmary (later The Infirmary), and PHFFT. He later sang harmony vocals in another local band, Poor Heart. Gramm then went on to sing and play drums, and to eventually become front man for the band Black Sheep. Black Sheep had the distinction of being the first American band signed to the Chrysalis label, which released their first single, "Stick Around" (1973). Black Sheep played in niteclubs in Rochester and Buffalo, NY including McVan's, formerly at Niagara Street and Hertel Avenue. Soon after this initial bit of success, Black Sheep signed with Capitol Records, releasing two albums in succession [Black Sheep (1974) and Encouraging Words (1975)]. They were the opening act for KISS when an icy accident with their equipment truck on the New York State Thruway suddenly ended the band's tour on Christmas Eve, 1975. Unable to support its albums with live performances, Black Sheep came prematurely to a screeching halt.

A year earlier, Lou Gramm had the opportunity to meet his future bandmate Mick Jones. Jones was in Rochester performing with the band Spooky Tooth, and Gramm had given Jones a copy of Black Sheep's first album (S/T). It was early in 1976, not long after Black Sheep's truck accident, when Jones, in search of a lead vocalist for a new band he was assembling, expressed his interest in Gramm and invited him in a phone call to audition for the job of lead singer.

Foreigner Formation and Heyday

With the blessings of his Black Sheep bandmates, Gramm flew down to New York to audition for the still-unnamed band. With his powerful vocals, he got the job. Lou Grammatico then became Lou Gramm, and, with the band initially known as "Trigger," and later renamed Foreigner, became one of the most successful rock vocalists of the late 1970s and 1980s. Circus magazine in 1978 upon release of "Hot Blooded" commented that Lou Gramm had a voice that Robert Plant might envy. His unique vocals have made Foreigner one of Billboard's Top 100 Artists of All Time in hit songs history.

Gramm was the lead vocalist on all of Foreigner's hit songs, including "Feels Like the First Time", "Cold as Ice", "Long, Long Way from Home", "Hot Blooded", "Double Vision", "Blue Morning, Blue Day", "Head Games", "Dirty White Boy", "Urgent", "Juke Box Hero", "Break It Up" and "Say You Will". He co-wrote most of the songs for the band, which achieved two of its biggest hits with the ballads "Waiting for a Girl Like You", which spent ten weeks at #2 on the 1981-82 American Hot 100, and "I Want to Know What Love Is", which was a #1 hit internationally (US & UK) in 1985. The latter was credited only to Jones; however, Gramm indicated that he had contributed to 40% of its writing.^{[citation needed]} Their first 8 singles cracked the Billboard Top 20,(4 went Top 10) making them the first group since the Beatles to achieve this in 1980.

Gramm and Mick Jones had a volatile sort of chemistry that exploded into many a chart-topper, yet at times they clashed artistically. Following the band's second album, the wildly successful Double Vision, shifts in personnel began to take place. Following their next album, Head Games, Gramm and Jones jointly decided to reduce the band's lineup from six to four members. The next album, which Gramm has called the high point of his work with Foreigner, was aptly titled 4. Gramm wanted the band to remain true to its purer rock origins, favoring music with a solid drum and guitar structure, whereas Jones embraced the 1980s style of synthesizer ballads — a more lucrative approach at the time. Indeed, the next album, Agent Provocateur, would find Jones moving creatively in the opposite direction from Gramm, seeking out potential co-producers such as Trevor Horn, and then Alex Sadkin, which ended up giving Foreigner's sound a somewhat new-wavish, keyboard-dominant quality.

Late 1980s and 1990s

By 1987, Foreigner continued to struggle with ongoing internal conflicts. During this period, Gramm released his first solo album, Ready or Not, which received critical acclaim and contained a top five hit single with "Midnight Blue". He also contributed the song "Lost in the Shadows” to the soundtrack for the 1987 horror film The Lost Boys. This was followed by the late-1987 Foreigner album Inside Information, which reached number 15 on Billboard's album chart. The extracted "Say You Will" was released late that year, reaching number 6 on the Hot 100 early in 1988, and "I Don't Want to Live Without You" followed, reaching number 5 on the Hot 100 and number one on the adult contemporary chart in the spring. A third single, "Heart Turns to Stone" reached number 56 in the summer. Eventually a second solo effort, Long Hard Look, that included the top ten hit, "Just Between You and Me", and "True Blue Love", reached the Top 40.

Encouraged by his solo success, and increasingly displeased with the direction in which Jones was taking Foreigner, Gramm left the group in May 1990 to tour behind Long Hard Look , opening for Steve Miller Band, and went on to form Shadow King in late 1990 with close friend and former Black Sheep bassist Bruce Turgon. The new group's 1991 self-titled album was released by Atlantic Records. Despite positive reviews, the group lacked cohesiveness. It also did not enjoy the level of marketing and promotional support necessary to sustain a new project. Shadow King soon disbanded. The same year, Foreigner released the album Unusual Heat, a relatively unsuccessful effort fronted by vocalist Johnny Edwards.

Edwards was not widely accepted by the Foreigner fan base. So when he was contacted by Mick Jones, Gramm agreed to return to the group in April 1992 to record three new songs for the compilation, The Very Best of ... and Beyond, bringing a new energy back into the mix. Gramm also brought Bruce Turgon with him to join the Foreigner lineup at this point.

In 1992 Gramm, after having completed a stint in rehab at the end of the previous year, became a Born Again Christian "after being tired of the rock 'n' roll life and not feeling very fulfilled...I was falling prey to some of the bad habits that can go along with that, and I just decided that my own willpower and strength was not enough, and [being raised a Catholic Christian], I knew the answer was something deeper for a long time."

In 1995 Foreigner released the album Mr. Moonlight on the Rhythm Safari label which, although relatively successful in Europe, was not as widely marketed or distributed in the U.S. Still, "Until the End of Time" made inroads at adult contemporary radio. With the changing trends in popular music, this now-classic rock band came to suffer the inevitable slowing of their genre's momentum.

In 1996 Mick Jones invited Gramm to perform backing vocals on a cover version of "I Want to Know What Love Is" he was producing for the Australian singer Tina Arena. The song went on to become a major hit again throughout Europe.

In April 1997, two months after providing vocals for Christian rock band Petra's Petra Praise 2: We Need Jesus, and on the eve the band was to leave for a Japan tour, Gramm was diagnosed with a type of brain tumor called a craniopharyngioma. Although the tumor was benign, the resulting surgery damaged his pituitary gland. In addition, the recovery program had caused Gramm to gain weight, and likewise affected his stamina and voice. He continued to work with Jones throughout his illness and by 1998 Gramm was back touring with Foreigner playing summer festivals and smaller markets.

2000s to present

Gradually, Gramm's health and energy have rebounded. Gramm left Foreigner again in 2003, and has been touring the U.S., Canada, and Mexico (as well as performing occasional dates off the continent) steadily since January 2004.

Lou Gramm, with brother Ben Gramm (Drums), with friends Don Mancuso (Guitar) and Andy Knoll (Keyboards) and A.D. Zimmer (Bass) play a retrospective of Gramm's work with Foreigner, his solo material, plus a few personal favorites of their own. In addition, the band has taken on Christian rock. The Lou Gramm Band has recently finished an all-Christian rock album, which was released in the U.S. on June 2, 2009, through Spectra Records.

As of 2012, Lou Gramm continues to tour with his band, performing many of his old Foreigner hits.

Select discography

Solo albums

Title	Details	Peak chart positions
		US	CAN
Ready Or Not	Release date: February 1987 Label: Atlantic Records Formats: CD, cassette	27	24
Long Hard Look	Release date: October 13, 1989 Label: Atlantic Records Formats: CD, cassette	85	44
Lou Gramm Band	Release date: June 2, 2009 Label: Spectra Records Formats: CD, music download	—	—
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Solo singles

Year	Song	US Hot 100	US MSR	US A.C.	UK singles	Album
1987	"Midnight Blue"	5	1	-	82	Ready Or Not
1987	"Ready Or Not"	54	7	-	-	Ready Or Not
1989	"Just Between You And Me"	6	4	4	-	Long Hard Look
1989	"True Blue Love"	40	23	-	-	Long Hard Look

With Poor Heart

• 1988: Foreigner In A Strange Land
• 1993: The Best Of The Early Years

(Note: These are actually releases of much older recordings.)

With Black Sheep

• 1974: Black Sheep
• 1975: Encouraging Words

With Foreigner

• 1977: Foreigner (#4 US)
• 1978: Double Vision (#3 US, #32 UK)
• 1979: Head Games (#5 US)
• 1981: 4 (#1 US, #5 UK)
• 1982: Records (#10 US, #58 UK)
• 1984: Agent Provocateur (#4 US, #1 UK)
• 1987: Inside Information (#15 US, #64 UK)
• 1992: The Very Best Of
• 1992: The Very Best Of...And Beyond (#123 US, #19 UK)
• 1993: Classic Hits Live/Best Of Live
• 1994: JukeBox Heroes: The Best Of
• 1994: Mr. Moonlight (#136 US, #59 UK)
• 1999: The Platinum Collection
• 1999: Rough Diamonds No. 1
• 2000: Hot Blooded And Other Hits
• 2000: Anthology: Jukebox Heroes
• 2002: Complete Greatest Hits (#80 US)
• 2002: The Definitive (#33 UK)
• 2008: No End In Sight: The Very Best Of Foreigner

With Shadow King

• 1991: Shadow King

With Liberty N' Justice

• 2001: Welcome To The Revolution

With Don Mancuso

• 2005: D: Drive

With The Lou Gramm Band

• 2009: Baptized By Fire

References

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