The Final Frontier

Gold Mountain Records moved its distribution from A&M Records to MCA Records, and Billboard reported that this was the first album delivered to MCA under the new agreement. Ron Keel told the paper that the band had worried about the change until it met MCA. Marc Ferrari recalls going back into the studio with Gene Simmons to round off 1985. The album was recorded over about three months at Electric Lady in New York, Baby-O in Hollywood and the Village Recorder in Santa Monica, with Dave Wittman recording and mixing it and George Marino mastering it at Sterling Sound. The line-up was the same as on The Right to Rock: Ron Keel, Ferrari, Bryan Jay, Kenny Chaisson and Dwain Miller. The sleeve names five special guests: Michael Des Barres (vocals) and Joan Jett (rhythm guitar) on "Raised on Rock", Black 'N Blue's Jaime St. James (backing vocals) on "Rock and Roll Animal", Gregg Giuffria (backing vocals) on "No Pain No Gain" and Mitch Perry (rhythm guitar) on "Tears of Fire". The third track is "Because the Night", written by Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith. The record is dedicated to the astronauts of the Space Shuttle Challenger, lost on 28 January 1986. Billboard listed the LP (MCA-5727) and cassette among its new releases on 5 April 1986, and the following week reported that 150,000 copies had shipped. "Because the Night" was the first single, with a video directed and produced by Peter Lippman. The album entered Billboard's chart at No. 109 on 19 April, peaked at No. 53 in June and stayed for 18 weeks. That year the band toured Europe as special guests of Dio and headlined its own tour of Japan. Rock Candy Records reissued the album, remastered, in 2019.