"Radioactive" is a song by
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
rock band 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. 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 electric guitar effects pedal that alters the tone and frequencies of the guitar signal to create a distinctive sound, mimicking the human voice saying the onomatopoeic name "wah-wah". The ped ...
inflected guitar solo.
Chris Slade
Chris Slade (born Christopher Slade Rees; 30 October 1946) is a Welsh musician, best known for playing for the Australian rock band AC/DC. He drummed for the band from 1989 to 1994, performing on their 1990 album '' The Razors Edge'' along wit ...
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. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it is the world's first mass-produced, commercially successful Les Paul had built a prototype solid bo ...
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
Mainstream Rock is a music chart in '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States, a category that combines the formats of active rock and heritage rock. The chart was launched in ...
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" (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
Chart positions
Personnel
*
Paul Rodgers –
lead vocals,
acoustic and
electric
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...
guitars,
production
Production may refer to:
Economics and business
* Production (economics)
* Production, the act of manufacturing goods
* Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services)
* Production as a stati ...
*
Jimmy Page – acoustic and electric guitars, production
*
Tony Franklin –
bass guitar
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
,
keyboards,
synthesizer,
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 ...
*
Chris Slade
Chris Slade (born Christopher Slade Rees; 30 October 1946) is a Welsh musician, best known for playing for the Australian rock band AC/DC. He drummed for the band from 1989 to 1994, performing on their 1990 album '' The Razors Edge'' along wit ...
–
drums and
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...
See also
*
List of ''Billboard'' Mainstream Rock number-one songs of the 1980s
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