Bad Blood

Hey there, Zoo Freaks, the Zoo Crew has got that classic cut "Bad Blood" spinning right now from Fortune's self-titled album that hit the racks back in 1985 on the Camel/MCA label. This one is pure AOR fire, that polished melodic rock sound with soaring vocals and hooks that stick like a late-night ride down the highway. Written by the team of L.A. Greene, Richard Fortune, and Roger Scott Craig, it sits right in the middle of a record that fans still call one of the finest examples of the genre ever cut. The cover art alone, with that black-gloved hand on the vault dial, feels like something out of a high-stakes story, and the music matches with its blend of keyboards and guitar bite.

Trivia from the sessions paints a picture of real studio grit. They started laying tracks at Sound City up in the San Fernando Valley, north of Los Angeles, then bounced around to wrap things at Village Recorders in Santa Monica after about six weeks total. Producer Kevin Beamish kept the ship steady, and the lineup locked in with Greene on lead vocals, Richard Fortune on guitar and backing vocals, brother Mick Fortune on drums, Bobby Birch handling bass, vocals, and saxophone, and Craig on keyboards. Greene and Craig drove a lot of the writing, building those anthems that feel both personal and larger than life. The lyrics to "Bad Blood" dig into a relationship gone sideways, with lines about waking up on the floor and that madness that never seems to quit, turning black into white somehow. It is that midtempo groove that sits between the pomp of tracks like "Thrill of It All" and the ballad pull of "Stacy," and live versions later showed up on the Gun's Still Smokin' set from the Frontiers Rock Festival.

The bigger story around the album is the label rollercoaster. Camel Records, run by Bruce Bird, put it out and the thing moved units especially over in Europe and Japan, where AOR was already a religion. But then the payola mess hit when Bird's brother got arrested on the East Coast, MCA cut ties, and suddenly the band was left with almost no promotion or payoff. Greene has talked in interviews about how the whole thing just collapsed after the release, even though the songs were there and the performances were locked. No big domestic push, and the masters got tied up in the bankruptcy fallout, which is why it took until the 2004 remaster on Gypsy Rock and later AOR Heaven editions for more folks to dig back in. Still, the album aged like good vinyl, and when the band reunited years later they still pulled "Bad Blood" into sets because the Zoo Freaks of the world never let those deep cuts fade.

As for how Fortune got rolling, it starts with the brothers themselves. Richard and Mick Fortune came from a musical family, mom a singer and dad a singer and bassist, so the rock and roll was in the blood early. Richard picked up the guitar around sixteen and soon found himself touring with heavy company like Buddy Miles, Booker T and the MGs, and Spirit. Mick began on accordion, keys, and even trombone before settling behind the drums. They formed the band in the late seventies out of Los Angeles with Richard's wife Colleen on vocals, cut a self-titled album for Warner Brothers in 1978, and played around the clubs. By the early eighties they shifted toward a more commercial direction, brought in Craig from his time with Liverpool Express, and Greene stepped in after Colleen moved on. Greene had already been at it since he was fourteen with Odyssey on Capricorn, done soundtrack work including the Top Gun cut "Through the Fire," and met Richard around the time he was signed to RCA. That combination clicked hard, and even after the 1985 album and the label crash they circled back, playing Rockingham festivals and cutting new records like II in 2019 and Level Ground in 2022.

Greene always brought that street-blues edge to the writing with Craig's classical training, and the brothers kept the rhythm tight. Fans who followed the reunion shows remember how the old tunes still hit, and "Bad Blood" carries that same tension of love that has gone one step too far. It is the kind of song the Zoo Crew loves spinning because it feels lived-in, not polished for radio formulas. The whole album stands as a cult classic that outlasted the industry mess, and the band kept the spirit alive long after most acts from that era had packed it in.

You can check in with the band on their official Facebook page at Fortune, where they share the road stories and updates. Active Facebook groups like Westcoast AOR favorites and AOR-HAIRMETAL NOSTALGIA keep the conversation going with posts about the album and deep cuts like this one. And of course, you are listening right here on THE ZOO, where the Zoo Crew keeps the freeform rock spinning for all you Zoo Freaks out there. Stay tuned, keep the volume up, and ride that bad blood groove all the way through.