Don't Treat Me Bad

FireHouse is best-known for their sweeping power ballads, but before "Love of a Lifetime" came this song, which is an upbeat rocker about a guy who gets mistreated by his girl but can't give her up. Released as the band's debut single, it made an impressive showing on the US charts, but it soon became clear that these hair metal upstarts would be known for their love songs.

A band composition, this one was not about a specific person. In our interview with FireHouse frontman CJ Snare, he explained: "Sometimes songs really are personal and sometimes they really, really aren't. I remember sitting down at the piano and coming up with that chord progression, but it sounds really different on piano, obviously, than it did on guitar. I had the first verse, bridge, and chorus, and then I brought it to the other guys in the band and we hammered out the rest of the song. Mostly Bill [Leverty, guitarist] and myself."

The women in hair metal songs were often either heartbreaking vixens or deceitful dames getting a kiss-off. This song is a combination of both, as the singer can't give her up, but also warns her that he might be the best thing she's ever had. These songs blending swagger and vulnerability could help bolster a band's male fansbase, offsetting the wuss factor of their ballads. FireHouse was clearly trying to introduce a devious and somewhat psychotic female character with this song, as evidenced by the video (directed by Mark Rezyka), which intercuts concert footage of the band with a girl destroying his stuff (Not my Hendrix poster!). The album cover also portrayed a lady of the unhinged variety, showing her in the foreground with a smoldering match while a house burns down behind her.