Bad Company went into the studio in 1974 with pressure already hanging over them, and the result was Straight Shooter, the band’s second album and the follow-up to a debut that had made them stars. Recorded in the fall of 1974, the record gave the supergroup from Free, Mott the Hoople and King Crimson a second chance to prove it was more than a fast start.

That mattered because Bad Company had not only arrived with a chart-topping first album, but had also done it after signing to Led Zeppelin’s Swan Song label. Simon Kirke said the band knew what was at stake. “We had to prove that we weren’t a one-hit wonder and that this follow-up to the Bad Company album would stand on its own merit,” he said, adding, “There was a little apprehension.”

The mood inside the band, though, was not grim. Paul Rodgers said, “The mood was good then,” and recalled how the group had just received its gold albums. “We were charged and excited to follow the success of the first album. Peter Grant [manager to Bad Company and Led Zeppelin] had just presented us with our gold albums, so ‘euphoric’ would be putting it mildly,” he said. Rodgers’ description fits the way Straight Shooter landed: not as a retreat, but as a confident answer to the question of whether the first record had been a fluke.

The album produced two cuts that became familiar on rock radio, “Shooting Star” and “Good Lovin’ Gone Bad,” but the song that made the clearest case for the band’s staying power was “Feel Like Makin’ Love.” It became the most successful track from Straight Shooter and climbed to No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. For a hard-rock band built from veteran players, that was more than a respectable pop showing. It was evidence that Bad Company could reach beyond its core audience without losing its edge.

Mick Ralphs said the song came together from two separate ideas. “I suggested we put the two together to create the song,” he said. He later described the balance the track struck: “I think that’s the feel of the song. The verses are very appealing to the ladies, probably more than the men, and then the riff comes in, which is all bloody macho. It’s a big chorus, and it worked out really well.”

That blend helped define why the record mattered then and why it still does now. In 1975, Straight Shooter was not just a second album. It was the band’s proof that its debut success was not a one-off, and “Feel Like Makin’ Love” became the clearest evidence that Bad Company could build a career, not just a moment.