‘Feels Like the Very Fourth Time’: Jimmy Kimmel’s New Oscars Ad Invokes Foreigner Hit
Foreigner is having a moment. The band, which is currently nominated for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, is also being saluted in an ad promoting the Oscars, which are set for March 10. The ad tweaks the title of Foreigner’s 1977 breakthrough hit “Feels Like the First Time” with the copy line “Feels Like the Very Fourth Time,” since this is comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s fourth time as host. The line has several of Kimmel’s trademarks – clever, a little bit corny and sweetly endearing.
“Feels Like the First Time” entered the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1977 and rose to No. 4, becoming the first of nine top 10 hits for the band.
Foreigner has been in the news in the past month because Mark Ronson, stepson of Foreigner guitarist and principal writer Mick Jones, has been mounting a campaign to get the band in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Ronson assembled a compilation of videos from famous friends voicing their support for the band.
“We decided to go all out this year and really try and get Foreigner on the ballot for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” Ronson said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “I called in some favors. So there’s some people I’ve met along the way making music myself that I knew were fans of Foreigner, like Jack Black and Dave Grohl and Slash.”
The prize endorsement came from Paul McCartney, whose pitch was to-the-point and surprisingly off-color. “Foreigner not in the Hall of Fame? What the f—?” the legendary Beatles rocker declared in a video he sent Ronson.
Jones was the sole writer of such Foreigner hits as “Feels Like the First Time,” “Urgent,” “I Want to Know What Love Is” (which brought him a Grammy nod for song of the year) and “I Don’t Want to Live Without You” and teamed with Lou Gramm to co-write “Cold as Ice,” “Hot Blooded,” “Double Vision,” “Waiting for a Girl Like You” and “Say You Will.” All of these songs reached the top 10 on the Hot 100.
The Oscars will air March 10 at a new, earlier time: 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductions are set to be announced in late April.
Paul Grein
Billboard
