TAKE TWO: ROBERT PALMER

British artist, Robert Palmer never came across much of a rock & roller as he was quite dapper, usually performing wearing a suit and the occasional tie but he was more than capable of tearing the roof off with his rich, powerful voice.

Heavily influenced by the American blues and r&b he heard as a kid, Palmer began his music career performing in several rock and jazz-fusion bands before going solo and achieving his first taste of commercial success with the 1978 song, "Every Kinda People" off of his fourth album, "Double Fun". The single reached number sixteen on the U.S. pop chart while the lead single off his next album, "Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor)" going slightly higher, peaking at number fourteen on the Billboard Hot 100 the following year.

Robert Palmer was invited to join Duran Duran members, John Taylor and Andy Taylor along with Chic drummer, Tony Thompson to form a super-group, The Power Station in 1985. Their self-titled album featured two U.S. top-ten smashes, "Some Like It Hot" and a remake of T. Rex's "Bang A Gong (Get It On)".

Around the time of the recording of The Power Station album, Palmer was working on his next solo album with assistance by his fellow bandmates and the record was produced by Bernard Edwards of Chic. "Riptide" was released later in '85 and featured Palmer's only number one song, "Addicted To Love". The song was also made memorable due to the music video which was inspired by the work of artist, Patrick Nagel. A cover of r&b vocalist, Cherrelle's 1984 hit, "I Didn't Mean To Turn You On" also made the top five with the album becoming his biggest seller with over two million copies sold and winning the singer a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance.

Although the world lost Robert Palmer in 2003, his legacy lives on with a vibrant collection of music that still feels very fresh and exciting.

Enjoy two of my favorite songs by Mr. Palmer:

"Every Kinda People" - Robert Palmer (1978)

"You Are In My System" - Robert Palmer (1983)

 As a bonus, I couldn't resist showing the simple but quite clever sexy video for "Addicted To Love":

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MTV

I can't believe that MTV is actually THIRTY YEARS OLD today. It's so crazy to me because it doesn't seem that long ago.

I admit it has been many, many years since I have actually watched MTV beyond catching an episode or two of the reality train wreck, "Jersey Shore" but there was time when I would watch the channel every chance I could get, although this was back when it was actually a music station.

MTV premiered today in 1981 with five hosts called, "video jockeys" or VJs and they were: Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Martha Quinn, Alan Hunter and J.J. Jackson (who passed away in 2004) and the first video aired was The Buggles', "Video Killed The Radio Star".

In some ways that song was accurate as the music video became a powerful tool in promoting music, with record labels spending up to a million dollars on one clip, and created innovative short films that creatively merged music and images. MTV even helped get some of these songs radio airplay based on the popularity of the music video although, the downside to all of this began when the music industry placed an unhealthy emphasis on a band's image with the music sometimes becoming an afterthought which saw a rise of artists who were camera-ready but lacking in true musical abilities. The worst case was the Milli Vanilli scandal where the performers who were in the music video singing and even won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist had actually never sang a note on the recordings.

MTV clearly changed the face of music and television by launching the careers of many artists such as Madonna, Duran Duran, Culture Club, and Prince as well as made already successful musicians as Bruce Springsteen and Michael Jackson in to superstars.

There have been rumours that MTV is going to attempt to start showing music videos again but who knows? Maybe the time might be ripe for a reinvention of this medium.

Happy Birthday, MTV and thank-you for the music (video).

Here is the Buggles and their music video:



Here are a few highlights from the glory days of MTV: