Foreigner

Using a gospel choir to add some heavenly heft to your songs has become a rock & roll cliché — by now, everyone from Spiritualized to Diddy has used that trick. But when Foreigner assembled the masses for 1985's No. 1 hit "I Want to Know What Love Is," it felt like the hand of God came down and anointed the band as kings of the power ballad. Unfortunately, it was to be a short-lived reign. By the end of the decade, singer Lou Gramm would be gone, leaving guitarist/songwriter Mick Jones to helm an ever-changing Foreigner lineup. The current incarnation features vocalist Kelly Hansen (and, awesomely, Dokken and Dio vet Jeff Pilson on bass), and the group recently released its first disc in fifteen years, Can't Slow Down.