“Radioactive” by The Firm

The Firm's "Radioactive" was the first single off the English band's self-titled debut, where it sits fifth on the running order, and Paul Rodgers wrote it on his own. For a group with Rodgers singing and Jimmy Page on guitar, it's a lean, no-frills piece of mid-'80s rock: Tony Franklin's fretless bass hook opens it, Page scratches in on the third line of each verse, Rodgers' voice comes drenched in reverb, a wah-wah guitar solo follows, and Chris Slade keeps a steady beat underneath.

On stage, Slade would kick it off with a drum solo that led into Franklin's bass line, and Page toured it on a brown Fender Telecaster fitted with a Parsons and White B-string bender. The single helped push the album into the Billboard Top 20, and Rodgers has kept it in his solo sets ever since.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.