Foreigner - Complete Greatest Hits (2002)

Foreigner has released no fewer than 7 greatest hits packages. Why? Simply look at the cover art: $£€$₤. Very subtle. I'm a casual Foreigner fan (the only release I ever owned was 1981's 4 on cassette), so this compilation will do just fine. I hear the band is still around, but without lead singer Lou Gramm. I have a theory that any band without its lead singer becomes a cover/tribute band - I'm looking at you Journey, Styx, Chicago, Yes, Queen, etc. Shame on you.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #80

Tracks: I grew up on the early hits like Feels Like The First Time, Cold As Ice, Hot Blooded, Double Vision, and Head Games. It's fun to hear those again. For some reason, the classic rock station in my area never seems to play Foreigner (maybe the program director's egirlfriend was a big Foreigner fan), so this is the only way for me to hear them. When the band changed directions in the '80s towards power ballads, they lost me: I Want To Know What Love Is and I Don't Want To Live Without You are simply unbearable. I know it's a Lou Gramm solo hit, but I would have liked the inclusion of Midnight Blue here. There's 20 tracks here, I've only ripped 10 to iTunes, but 10 good songs on a CD isn't bad.

Song	Album	Year	Hot 100	Rock*
Feels Like the First Time	Foreigner	1977	4
Cold As Ice	Foreigner	1977	6
Long, Long Way From Home	Foreigner	1977	20
Headknocker	Foreigner	1977	-
Hot Blooded	Double Vision	1978	3
Double Vision	Double Vision	1978	2
Blue Morning, Blue Day	Double Vision	1978	15
Dirty White Boy	Head Games	1979	12
Head Games	Head Games	1979	14
Women	Head Games	1980	41
Girl On The Moon	4	1981	-
Urgent	4	1981	4	1
Waiting For A Girl Like You	4	1981	2	1
Juke Box Hero	4	1982	26	3
I Want To Know What Love Is	Agent Provocateur	1984	1	1
That Was Yesterday	Agent Provocateur	1985	12	4
Heart Turns To Stone	Inside Information	1988	56	7
I Don't Want To Live Without You	Inside Information	1988	5	18
Say You Will	Inside Information	1987	6	1
Soul Doctor	Very Best...and Beyond	1993	-	5

*Billboard began its Rock Tracks chart with the March 21, 1981 issue.

Missing Top 40 hit: Break It Up (#26, 1982).

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: The tracks from the '70s remind me of good times in West Texas when you didn't pick the music you listened to, the AM radio station made that decision for you. The song Hot Blooded, for some reason, reminds me of family trips to the local Baskin-Robbins. The mind works in strange ways, I guess.