"Radioactive" is a song by English

rock band ''Rock Band'' is a series of rhythm games first released in 2007 and developed by Harmonix. Based on their previous development work from the Guitar Hero, ''Guitar Hero'' series, the main ''Rock Band'' games have players use game controllers mod ...

The Firm. It was the first single released from their eponymous debut album '' The Firm'', where it was the fifth track. It was written by

Paul Rodgers Paul Bernard Rodgers (born 17 December 1949) is an English-Canadian singer. He was the lead vocalist of numerous successful rock bands, including Free (band), Free, Bad Company, The Firm (rock band), the Firm and The Law (English band), the L ...

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

Background

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 A wah-wah pedal, or simply wah pedal, is a type of effects unit, effects pedal designed for electric guitar that alters the timbre of the input signal to create a distinctive sound, mimicking the human voice saying the onomatopoeia, onomatopoe ...

inflected guitar solo.

Chris Slade Chris Slade (born Christopher Slade Rees; 30 October 1946) is a Welsh drummer, who is perhaps best known for playing for Manfred Mann's Earth Band from its inception in 1971 to 1978 on eight albums, and AC/DC, for which he drummed from 1989 to ...

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 The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele (), is an electric guitar produced by Fender (company), Fender. Together with its sister model the Fender Esquire, Esquire, it was the world's first mass-produced, commercially successfulLes ...

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. A music video to promote the song was filmed in October 1984. 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 MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

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.

Formats and track listings

1985 7" single (US: Atlantic 7-89586, UK: Atlantic A-9586) *A. "Radioactive" (Rodgers) 2:49 *B. "Together" (Page, Rodgers) 3:54 1985 12" special mix edition (US: Atlantic 86896, UK: Atlantic A-9586T) *A. "Radioactive (Special Mix)" (Rodgers) 5:52 *B1. "City Sirens (Live)" (Page, Edwards) 4:27 *B2. "Live in Peace (Live)" (Rodgers) 5:10 1985 12" single (UK: Atlantic A-9586TE) *A1. "Radioactive (Special Mix)" (Rodgers) 2:49 *A2. "Together" (Page, Rodgers) 3:54 *B1. "City Sirens (Live)" (Page, Edwards) 2:01 *B2. "Live in Peace (Live)" (Rodgers) 5:05 1986 7" single reissue (US: Atlantic Oldies Series 7-84966) *A. "Radioactive" (Rodgers) 2:49 *B. "All the King's Horses" (Rodgers) 3:16

Charts

Personnel

–

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

, acoustic and

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

guitars, production *

Jimmy Page James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician and producer who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the Rock music, rock band Led Zeppelin. Page began his career as a studio session musician in Lo ...

– acoustic and electric guitars, production * Tony Franklin –

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

, keyboards,

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

–

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

and

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

References

{{Authority control 1985 debut singles 1985 songs Atlantic Records singles The Firm (rock band) songs Song recordings produced by Jimmy Page Songs written by Paul Rodgers

Background

Formats and track listings

Charts

Personnel

See also

References