1985 · Behind the Songs
The follow-up single to a number one — and a ballad with a backbone.
“That Was Yesterday” had the hardest job in Foreigner’s catalog: following “I Want to Know What Love Is” — the choir-backed number one already covered on this site — as the second single from Agent Provocateur (1984). Written by Mick Jones and Lou Gramm, it answers the big ballad with a smaller one: no choir, no cathedral, just a mid-tempo rocker about a love that’s already over. The title does the work — yesterday isn’t coming back, and the band doesn’t pretend otherwise.
The song kept Foreigner on the radio into 1985, proof that the band could do heartbreak without the widescreen treatment. Gramm sings it with unusual restraint — more resignation than swagger — and Jones keeps the guitars lean until the chorus opens up. It wasn’t the phenomenon its predecessor was, which is precisely the point of this series’ lesser-known picks: “That Was Yesterday” is the sound of a huge band playing it straight, and it holds up as one of the most honest singles of their imperial phase.