Classic Hits Live (1993)
1. Double Vision
2. Cold as Ice
3. The Damage is Done
4. Women
5. Dirty White Boy
6. Fool For You Anyway
7. Head Games
8. Not Fade Away
9. Waiting For a Girl Like You
10.Jukebox Hero
11.Urgent
12.Love Maker
13.I Want To Know What Love Is
14.Feels Like the First Time
Let’s be honest: Foreigner was never exactly known for setting stages on fire—at least not figuratively. Their live presence, while competent, was always a bit subdued. No high-flying guitar heroics, no grand theatrics, and not much in the way of audience banter. They largely kept to their spots, delivered the hits, and called it a night. Functional? Absolutely. Electrifying? Not quite.
So when Classic Hits Live finally landed, expectations were understandably modest. Thankfully, the music—the part that really matters—holds up well enough. The band rolls through a sizable selection of hits with precision and professionalism, and even if the performances don’t redefine any of the material, they certainly don’t diminish it either. The big choruses are still big, the riffs are still sharp, and Lou Gramm still sounds like Lou Gramm—at least, most of the time.
Which brings us to one of the album’s biggest missteps: inconsistency. Rather than compiling a cohesive set from a single tour—or even a single era—this album cherry-picks tracks from multiple years and multiple settings. That in itself isn’t necessarily a crime, but the effect here is jarring. You’ll go from the thunderous roar of an arena crowd to what sounds like a coffeehouse radio appearance, and back again. The flow suffers, and the whole thing feels more like a patchwork mixtape than a unified live document.
Worse still, some of the performances betray their origins. The version of Jukebox Hero, taken from the 1981-82 tour, features a noticeably raspy Lou Gramm—understandable, given his well-documented bout with laryngitis during that stretch, but still a distraction. It’s a curious choice when better takes likely exist in the vault.
Then there’s the elephant in the room: Hot Blooded is nowhere to be found. One of their signature songs, arguably the signature song, and it’s MIA. Presumably it was left off because a live version had already appeared on Records back in 1982 (though that version was later replaced with the original studio cut on reissues). Whatever the reason, it’s a glaring omission.
Still, for all its faults, Classic Hits Live isn’t a total loss. When the band locks in, they sound great. The energy is there in flashes, and the core songs remain strong. It’s just hard to shake the feeling that this could have been much more. A little more focus, a better tracklist, and maybe just a bit of stage banter would’ve gone a long way.
As it stands, this one falls squarely in the “good but not great” camp. A decent listen, especially for diehards, but not exactly the definitive live statement Foreigner probably has in them—somewhere.
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