1977 Rock Classic About a 'Cold-Hearted Bad Girl' Almost Didn't Make It on the Album

Love might stink sometimes, but it certainly has inspired some of the catchiest songs in history...even when (or maybe especially when) the tune is about a romance gone sour.

Take Foreigner's classic hit, "Cold As Ice." The 1977 single, from the band's eponymous debut album, was written from the perspective of someone who's recently been hurt by a decidedly less-than-sensitive lover:

"You're as cold as ice / You're willing to sacrifice our love / You never take advice / Someday you'll pay the price, I know"

As Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones told Classic Rock, the lyrics were inspired by the "idea of the stereotypical cold-hearted, bad girl - the sort of woman Joan Crawford would play in a film."

"It wasn't aimed at anyone specific," he continued, adding, "Well, there was one girl at school that dumped me, so maybe that trauma stayed with me over the years and subconsciously filtered in! The other contributing factor was that it was about minus 20 degrees in New York at the time we were writing it, which may have fed into the atmosphere."

Even though "Cold As Ice" ended up being one of Foreigner's biggest hits ever, it wasn't originally meant to be on the album. But when producer Gary Lyons decided one of the tunes on the roster didn't fit the album's vibe, Jones got to work writing a substitute.

"I had bought a mini-piano, a Melody Grand, and I started to fiddle around on it, and hit upon a couple of interesting chords that I'd never played before," he explained. "Lou [Gramm] came around to the house and I just threw it out there and we started fleshing it out. I'd never written a full song on piano before and I was rather surprised how quickly I took to it. The piano I played in the studio was actually one that Atlantic had bought specifically for Aretha Franklin."

'Cold As Ice' was Foreigner's 'poppiest' song

"It's a strange, quirky little song, basically a pop song written back to front," Jones pointed out. "The structure is unusual: it starts with the title, and it's only further down the line that you realize that the pre-chorus is actually the chorus. I knew it was the poppiest song we'd done, which I was a little worried about, but everybody seemed to dig it. I didn't see it being indicative f the direction of Foreigner, so it was a bit of a surprise addition to the album. But one thing I wanted to do with Foreigner was to show that the band had some versatility, and this was definitely different and a bit commercial, not just another hard rock song."

"Cold As Ice" went on to peak at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 on Oct. 22, 1977.

"I must admit though that I was surprised when it went into the Top 10 in America," Jones said. "But then we were a new band, and everything was exciting and surprising at the time. I guess radio was ready to see what we had next."

As Jones went on to say, "Cold As Ice" is a "big one" for Foreigner fans.

"It's a proper singalong at gigs, everyone likes to belt it out. It's a bit of an oddity, but it's done very well for us. I guess it's part of our identity now," he said.

And to think, the song might never have happened if Jones didn't get dumped when he was still in school.

Related: 1985 No. 1 Soft Rock Power Ballad Became a Timeless Classic

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This story was originally published May 21, 2026 at 2:43 PM.