''Bad Company'' is the debut studio album by the English

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest ha ...

supergroup Bad Company. The album was recorded at Headley Grange with Ronnie Lane's Mobile Studio in November 1973, and it was the first album released on

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ...

's Swan Song Records label.

Reception and legacy

The album reached the top of the US ''Billboard'' 200. Since then, the album has been certified five times platinum by the RIAA, and became the 46th best selling album of the 1970s. The album spent 25 weeks in the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

, entering at No. 10 on June 15, 1974, and reaching its highest position of No. 3 in the second week. ''

Kerrang! ''Kerrang!'' is a British weekly magazine devoted to rock, punk and heavy metal music, currently published by Wasted Talent (the same company that owns electronic music publication '' Mixmag''). It was first published on 6 June 1981 as a on ...

'' magazine listed the album at No. 40 among the "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time". The album was also included in the book '' 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die''. In 2000 it was voted number 323 in

Colin Larkin Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British writer and entrepreneur. He founded, and was the editor-in-chief of, the '' Encyclopedia of Popular Music'', described by '' The Times'' as "the standard against which all others must be judged". Along w ...

's ''

All Time Top 1000 Albums ''All Time Top 1000 Albums'' is a book by Colin Larkin, creator and editor of the '' Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. The book was first published by Guinness Publishing in 1994. The list presented is the result of over 200,000 votes cast by t ...

''. The singles " Can't Get Enough" and " Movin' On" peaked at No. 5 and No. 19 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, respectively. "Rock Steady", " Bad Company" and "Ready for Love" (the last originally recorded by guitarist Mick Ralphs during his tenure with Mott the Hoople on their 1972 album '' All the Young Dudes'') are also classic rock radio staples.

Versions

The album was remastered and re-released in 1994. In 2006 an audiophile mastered 24K gold CD was released by Audio Fidelity.

Track listing

Personnel

;Bad Company *

Paul Rodgers Paul Rodgers (born 17 December 1949) is a British singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He was the lead vocalist of numerous bands, including Free, Bad Company, The Firm, and The Law. He has also performed as a solo artist, and co ...

– vocals, rhythm (1) and acoustic (8) guitars, piano (4, 5), tambourine (8) * Mick Ralphs – lead guitar (all but 8), keyboards (3, 6) * Boz Burrell – bass (all but 8) * Simon Kirke – drums (all but 8) ;Additional personnel * Sue Glover and Sunny Leslie – backing vocals (4) * Mel Collins – saxophones (6) * Ron Fawcus – tape operator * Hipgnosis – sleeve design, photography * Ron Nevison –

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considerin ...

, mixing * Steve Hoffman – mastering * Barry Diament – mastering * Beverly Taddei – production co-ordination * Bob Wynne –

art direction Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the vis ...

Charts

;Album ;Year-end charts

References

External links

* * Lyrics of covers by

Queen + Paul Rodgers Queen + Paul Rodgers (sometimes referred to as Q+PR or QPR) was a collaboration between Queen ( Brian May and Roger Taylor) and Paul Rodgers; formerly of Bad Company, Free, The Firm and The Law. Guitarist May had previously performed with ...

at Queen official website
"Can't Get Enough"
(from '' Return of the Champions'')
"Seagull", "Bad Company"
(from '' Live in Ukraine'')
Bad Company - ''Bad Company'' (1974) album review by Thomas Erlewine, credits & releases
at

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...

Bad Company - ''Bad Company'' (1974) album releases & credits
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the ...

Bad Company - ''Bad Company'' (1974, Deluxe Edition, 2015 Remaster) album to be listened
as stream on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active use ...

{{Authority control 1974 debut albums Albums with cover art by Hipgnosis Bad Company albums Island Records albums Swan Song Records albums