Take Five: Forgotten Classics from Robert Palmer

It’s easy to forget the facts now, but when Robert Palmer scored worldwide mega-success with his 1985 album Riptide, he was anything but an overnight success. In fact, Palmer’s career as a solo artist began more than a decade earlier; Riptide was his eighth solo release, and his first to crack the Top Ten on Billboard’s album chart. That record spawned no less than three charting singles in the U.S. (including the smash “Addicted to Love”) and three in the UK (not even all the same tracks).

Palmer got his professional breakthrough taking over as lead singer in British pop group The Alan Bown Set; a few years later he co-fronted Vinegar Joe, a well-regarded rock-blues-soul hybrid that nonetheless failed to set the charts alight. But once he began a solo career, initiated with 1974’s Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley, Robert Palmer began an upward career trajectory (one that included work fronting the Power Station, a separate story in and of itself) halted only by his untimely death in 2003 at age 54.

As this month marks the 50th anniversary of the release of his solo debut album, here are five forgotten classics dating from before Robert Palmer became a household name, MTV star and two-time Grammy Award winning artist.

“Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley” from Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley (1974)
For his solo debut, Yorkshire-born Palmer enlisted acclaimed New Orleans funk ensemble the Meters to serve as his backing group, and he added Little Feat founding upstairs Lowell George to the mix as well. The resulting music emphasized groove and rhythm, and the album’s title track displayed all of those virtues. The albums scraped the lower reaches of the chart, and when released as a single, the title track wouldn’t chart at all. But “Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley” provided a hint of what was to come.

“Man Smart, Woman Smarter” from Some People Can Do What They Like (1976)
Palmer’s second solo LP, 1975’s Pressure Drop, wasn’t much of a commercial success, but it earned favorable reviews. Palmer returned less than a year later with his third record, Some People Can Do What They Like, earning a minor hit (#63) with this reading of a 1936 calypso-flavored tune from Trinidadian singer King Radio. This album was Robert Palmer’s first outing producing his own recording sessions.

“Every Kinda People” from Double Fun (1978)
Written by bassist Andy Fraser of Free, “Every Kinda People” helped propel Palmer’s fourth solo album to the #45 spot on the Billboard 100, then his most successful chart action to date. A testament to the album’s appeal, no less than four singles would be released from Double Fun. “Every Kinda People” made it to #16 on the U.S. singles chart, and landed on charts in the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand as well.

“Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor) from Secrets (1979)
Written by Moon Martin, this song earned Robert Palmer his first #1 single ever (in Canada). The tune did quite well in the U.S. as well, soaring to the #14 spot. It was one of four charting singles released from Secrets, his fifth long-player. His career was in ascendancy: “Bad Case of Loving You” was Palmer’s most successful single to date.

“Looking for Clues” from Clues (1980)
Music Television (MTV) debuted on August 1, 1981. In its earliest days the channel had a fairly limited crop of music videos to broadcast. But from its very first day, MTV played the quirky video for Robert Palmer’s “Looking for Clues,” the sort-of title track from his sixth solo album. The new wave-flavored Clues had just the right sound for the era, and Palmer’s sophisticated, urbane look seemed custom-made for MTV-era success, too.