The Firm "Mean Business"

Mean Business is the second and final studio album by The Firm, released by Atlantic Records on 3 February 1986. Repeating the same bluesy formula as on the first album, The Firm (1985), Mean Business did not achieve the same commercial success.

One of the album's tracks, "Live in Peace", was first recorded on Paul Rodgers' first solo album in 1983, Cut Loose. The versions differ in that Chris Slade played the drums slower than on the original version, apart from the ending, and Jimmy Page added a bluesy guitar solo at the end of the song.

The album's title was intended to have a double meaning: that the music business is a hard one, and that the band was serious about its music ("The Firm mean business"). However, perhaps due to the lukewarm-at-best critical and financial success which the band met, Page and Rodgers decided to disband The Firm within months of this album's release.

The album peaked at #22 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. and at #46 on the UK Albums Chart. The single "All the King's Horses" spent four weeks at the top of Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.

"Fortune Hunter" was originally co-written by Page and Chris Squire for the aborted XYZ project in 1981. Squire was not credited on The Firm's version and later said he would have sued for royalties if the album had been a hit, but since it failed he dropped the idea because he saw it as inappropriate at a time when he was receiving six-figure yearly income from the sales of 90125.

The Firm "Radioactive (Single & Video)"

"Radioactive" is a song by English rock band The Firm. It was the first single released from their eponymous début album The Firm, where it was the fifth track. It was written by Paul Rodgers.

A compact and straightforward rock song from the 1980s, structured with Tony Franklin's fretless bass hook at the beginning, combined with Jimmy Page's guitar scratch on the third line in the verse, Rodgers' reverbed vocal, and followed by a wah pedal inflected guitar solo. Chris Slade plays a steady drum beat throughout. On live performances, the song was introduced with a drum solo from Slade, leading into Franklin's opening bass line. Page utilized his brown 1960s Fender Telecaster guitar featuring a Parsons and White B-string bender on tour with this song.

Their self-titled album, appearing on Atlantic Records, cracked the Billboard Top 20 on the strength of this single. Jimmy Page broke with the past and participated in the recording for the music video and single, the first time he had done both since the late 1960s. Page can be seen miming to the recording with his famous red doubleneck 1971 Gibson EDS-1275 guitar. In March 1985, MTV began heavily promoting the video, although the track was a modest seller, reaching #28 in America and topping the Top Rock Tracks chart for one week. "Radioactive" was also released as a 12" single and limited edition picture disc.

Paul Rodgers still performs this song during his solo sets and it appears on the 2007 Paul Rodgers: Live In Glasgow DVD.

The Firm "The Firm"

The Firm is the first studio album by the British rock band The Firm, released by Atlantic Records on 11 February 1985. Tracks ranged from the epic "Midnight Moonlight" based on a previously unreleased song by Led Zeppelin called "Swan Song", first tinkered with during the Physical Graffiti sessions, to the commercially successful "Radioactive". "Closer" employs a horn section to subtle effect. It also includes the Righteous Brothers' hit "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" with the fretless bass sound of Tony Franklin.

The Firm peaked at #17 on the Billboard 200 chart, and reached #15 on the UK Albums Chart. The song "Radioactive" topped Billboard's Top Rock Tracks chart for one week.