Sides one and two of the vinyl are recordings made with the
Rolling Stones Mobile Studio at the
Hammersmith Odeon, during the band's 1980 World Tour. Sides three and four are from a 1978 recording, previously released in Japan in March 1980 as
Live at Hammersmith. In North America, the album was released as a single record, excluding the live material from 1978. The first UK CD version (EMI CZD 94) was a double set, issued in 1988, in what is now known as a 'fat-boy' double-CD case. Sides one and two of the 2-LP set were CD1; sides three and four were CD2. The later 1994 release was a single CD version, the 1978 recording of "Come On" being dropped to match the restrictive running time of the single CD.
Live...in the Heart of the City has since been remastered and was released in March 2007 as a 2-CD set (in a slimline double-CD case), once again featuring all the tracks of the original album, plus a 1980 recording of "
Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City". In February 2011 it was released as a red vinyl 2-LP. The 1978 performance of
Might Just Take Your Life, originally recorded by singer
David Coverdale and keyboardist
Jon Lord as members of
Deep Purple in 1974, featured guitarist
Bernie Marsden singing the middle eight part as originally sung by
Glenn Hughes on the Deep Purple recording. The sleeve art is by British artist Jeff Cummins. "We were sent on some silly promotional stunt for the album that involved a
circus elephant," recalled
David Coverdale. "Yes, an elephant, not a snake. Lord knows why". ==Reception==