Mean Business

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2018}}

{{more citations needed|date=January 2022}}

{{Infobox album

| name = Mean Business

| type = studio

| artist = The Firm

| cover = The Firm Mean Business.jpg

| alt =

| released = 3 February 1986

| recorded = 1985

| venue =

| studio =

| genre = Rock

| length = 39:20

| label = Atlantic

| producer = Jimmy Page, Paul Rodgers and Julian Mendelsohn

| prev_title = The Firm

| prev_year = 1985

| next_title =

| next_year =

}}

{{Album reviews

|rev1 = AllMusic

|rev1score = {{Rating|2.5|5}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/mean-business-mw0000650144|title=Mean Business - The Firm | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic|access-date=16 May 2021|website=AllMusic}}

|rev2 = Rolling Stone

|rev2score = (unfavorable){{Cite web|url=http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/thefirm/albums/album/283305/review/5940533/mean_business|title=The Firm: Mean Business : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone|date=9 February 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090209182536/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/thefirm/albums/album/283305/review/5940533/mean_business|access-date=16 May 2021|url-status=dead|archive-date=9 February 2009}}

}}

Mean Business is the second and final studio album by The Firm, released by Atlantic Records on 3 February 1986. Repeating the same bluesy formula as on the first album, The Firm (1985), Mean Business did not achieve the same commercial success.

One of the album's tracks, "Live in Peace", was first recorded on Paul Rodgers' first solo album in 1983, Cut Loose. The versions differ in that Chris Slade played the drums at half tempo compared to the original version, apart from the ending. Paul Rodgers has recently played a new version on his new compilation album Live in Peace.

The album's title was intended to have a double meaning: that the music business is a hard one, and that the band was serious about its music ("The Firm mean business"). However, perhaps due to the lukewarm-at-best critical and financial success which the band met, Page and Rodgers decided to disband The Firm within months of this album's release.{{citation needed|date=November 2013}}

The album peaked at #22 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.{{cite magazine |url=http://www.billboard.com/charts/1986-03-15/billboard-200 |title=The Billboard 200 - 15 March 1986 |magazine=Billboard |access-date=17 January 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140712033932/http://www.billboard.com/charts/1986-03-15/billboard-200 |archive-date=12 July 2014}} and at #46 on the UK Albums Chart. The single "All the King's Horses" spent four weeks at the top of Billboard{{'}}s Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.{{citation needed|date=November 2013}}

"Fortune Hunter" was originally co-written by Page and Chris Squire for the aborted XYZ project in 1981. Squire was not credited on The Firm's version.