Happy 40th: Foghat, Fool for the City

40 years ago today, Foghat released an album which has become so ubiquitous on classic rock stations in the U.S. over the years that it's easy to forget that the band actually originated in the U.K. Then again, it's just as possible that you never knew that they started out as an offshoot of Savoy Brown, but if that's the case, then we've just taught you something new, so…you're welcome!

When Lonesome Dave Peverett, Rod “The Bottle” Price, Roger Earl, and Nick Jameson - known collectively as Foghat - released their fifth album in four years, it was a flip of the coin as to how successful it was likely to be for the band. Granted, they'd finally cracked the top 40 of Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart with Energized, their first album of 1974, and they did the same when they released their next album, Rock and Roll Outlaws, a few months before the year came to a conclusion, but the latter effort actually charted six places lower. Would the next record continue the downward trend? Or would they be able to turn things around and bring the fans back into the Foghat fold?

You guessed it: the album not only proved to be the band's highest-charting album up to that point, hitting #23, but it also featured the song that remains the most successful single in the Foghat catalog: “Slow Ride.” Of course, at this point, it's not even that the song was successful on the singles chart that matters, really, as much as it is that it's become a go-to track in a number of TV series and motion pictures, featuring in episodes of Seinfeld, Supernatural, Family Guy, NewsRadio, and Dexter while also being used to great effect in Dazed and Confused. It was even covered by The Chipmunks, for God's sake! If that doesn't secure you pop culture immortality, what does?