HTML4 Line Spacing

I am having trouble trying to decrease the line spacing here. Changing the line-height doesn't do anything.

<p><span style="color: rgb(137, 137, 137); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"> ★</span> iPhone Investor</p>
<p><span style="color: rgb(137, 137, 137); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"> ★</span> iPad Investor</p>
<p><span style="color: rgb(137, 137, 137); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"> ★</span> Brokers' client</p></div>

Thanks for any help