Blue Plate Special: Robert Palmer
Robert Palmer cultivated a persona that felt as meticulously tailored as his suits: cool, cosmopolitan, and effortlessly genre-fluid. His voice, silky yet commanding, moved with ease between soul, funk, jazz, rock, pop, reggae, and blues, giving his music a sense of worldly sophistication that was rare in pop stardom. From the swaggering pulse of “Bad Case of Loving You” to the velvet understatement of “Johnny and Mary,” Palmer projected an image of restraint and confidence, never chasing trends so much as curating them. Critics often described him as “elegant and sophisticated,” a master stylist who treated sound the way a fashion designer treats fabric, cutting, blending, and refining until it fit his exact vision.
That vision reached its most iconic form in the mid-1980s, when Palmer’s sharply dressed silhouette and the stylized glamour of his Terence Donovan-directed videos turned him into a symbol of modern pop excess. “Addicted to Love” and “Simply Irresistible” did not just dominate charts, they defined an era’s look that was minimalist, high-contrast, seductive, and slightly surreal. Yet beneath the immaculate surface was an artist who never stopped experimenting, folding bossa nova, reggae, and classic soul into a body of work that felt timeless rather than trendy. Palmer’s legacy is not only in his hits, but in the aesthetic he embodied: a fusion of sound, style, and attitude that made him one of pop’s most distinctive and enduring figures.
I remember a few of his singles from the late 70’s, and have strong memories of both ‘Every Kind of People’ and ‘Bad Case of Loving You’ from the radio of my youth, but it was his role as lead singer in the supergroup The Power Station alongside Duran Duran’s John and Andy Taylor, and Chic’s drummer Tony Thompson that I became a massive fan. In fact, I still have the original 1985 Power Station poster from my college dorm room rolled up in a tube in my garage. If you’re interested in hearing more from them (with Robert’s vocals), they were featured in this series back in 2023.
Some of my favorites from his solo catalog:
Addicted to Love – from the album Riptide (1985)
Simply Irresistible – from the album Heavy Nova (1988)
Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor Doctor) – from the album Secrets (1979)
Mercy Mercy Me – from the album Don’t Explain (1990)
Every Kind of People – from the album Double Fun (1978)
I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On – from the album Riptide (1985)
You Are In My System – from the album Pride (1983)
TV Dinners – from the album Drive (2003)
Johnny and Mary – from the album Clues (1980)
