Didn't Mean To Turn You On




http://www.youtube.com/wa...EaYxikKjLA


Early In The Morning



http://www.youtube.com/wa...iVor4-C2jo


Tell Me I'm Not Dreamin'



http://www.youtube.com/wa...vFHgMJHmgA



Mercy Mercy Me/I Want You




http://www.youtube.com/wa...MT-oiiY7DE

He is so underrated!!
He always got great critics but it seems the public forgot about this man.
Never became a huge star,maybe 4 a while with Addicted to love,
I don't think that was his goal.

also check out the cd he did with 2 of duran duran and tony thompson from chic, called 'power station' from 1985.....fantstic songs like 'some like it hot', 'return to zero' and 'lonely tonight'

Wow,he did alot of remakes,huh?

Paisley4u said:

Palmer was huge in the 80's. he had tons of hits, tons of mtv exposure. and lets not forget Power Station.

and don't forget the stunning 'she makes my day'


http://www.youtube.com/wa...rKSdvl-oNg

Is it true that he was wealthy, but was bored with that life and decided to get into music?

Liked his voice...big fan of the "Mercy Mercy Me/I Want You" cover...went to the same video well too many times but the first few were a trip...died too soon.

Also, didn't he record a Prince-written song and not include it on his album. I think it was called "Lust U Always".

He was one of the greatest singers in the world, I really dug his voice.Incidently, his remakes of R&B songs, sometimes did much better on the charts than the orginal. I loved his Riptide CD and also his work with Chaka Khan's "Come To My House". His contribution was a song called, "Spoon". He really died too soon.
[Edited 1/31/07 10:55am]

sosgemini said:

I know and Power Station was a great succes.
I mean;he never became a popstar among the youngsters at the time,
not like MJ or Bryan Adams or so...

I didn't know You are in my system was a cover
I also like Know by now,one of my fav.

peppeken said:

I have this on vinyl. They also did a kick-ass version of "Bang a Gong(Get it On)".

uPtoWnNY said:

:headbang:Love that one even more than Some like it hot

His "Every Kind Of People" is beautiful. That's my fave from him. Even though it is a direct lift from "What's Goin' On".

Paisley4u said:

"You Are in My System" was the first single by the group The System:



http://www.youtube.com/wa...9eZQbdCVJ4

I'm not getting the "Robert Palmer was underrated" comment, either. He had a string of hit songs in the latter 1980s and a good portion of the 1990s not only in the United States but overseas. Sometimes, I wonder if some people on the Org have an appropriate context when evaluating some artists' careers.
[Edited 1/31/07 17:31pm]

Some Like Hot is the best shit he ever did. That's the jump off right there.

he sounded good but boy, did he do a lot of remakes.

INSATIABLE said:

CO-

This guy did a lot of covers but a lot of bands do but do they do them as well?

Here's a couple questions.

Is he considered "blue eyed soul"?

Who else (besides Prince) been as consistent in always looking polished in everything I've ever seen him in?

Najee said:[quote]

Paisley4u said:

Palmer ripped off the demo from The System (who were in the process of applying for the copyrights) and raced to put his version out...they came out weeks apart
[Edited 1/31/07 18:13pm]

Slave2daGroove said:

It's all subjective, but I didn't feel Robert Palmer did a lot for the songs he covered, nor did I think most of his covers were good.

For one, it wasn't like Palmer did anything unique or distinctive with the covers -- he just performed them as straight-up as the original artists did. In contrast, Luther Vandross -- who also did a lot of covers -- tended to add his own creativity to his versions of covers. Vandross took songs like The Carpenters' "Superstar" and Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's "If This World Were Mine" and reshaped them into masterful versions to the point where they were at least as good (if not better than) the originals.

Another thing that galled me about Palmer's covers is that it wasn't like he was covering some long-ago chestnuts -- in some cases, he was re-recording songs that had not that long ago ran their course. His version of Cherrelle's "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On" came out less than two years after hers. As I mentioned before, his cover version of "You Are in My System" came out only weeks after The System's was on the airwaves (in both cases, it was particularly galling because these were these artists' first hit songs on the way to establishing a career).

Also given his propensity to cover recently-made soul songs considering he was a pop/Top 40 artist, I had a tendency to scream "Pat Boone!" whenever a Palmer cover came on. Most people tend to cover songs that impacted them at a younger age -- Palmer came across like he was going up and down the dial to check out what's hot on soul music radio stations and cover a hit song, as if he wanted pop and Top 40 stations to think it was his original composition.

I felt Palmer did a good cover of T. Rex's "Bang a Gong (Get It On)" while as a member of The Power Station, but that's basically a harder rock song. Like I said, I felt that most of his best work were original compositions that had some rock edge -- "Addicted to Love," "Some Like It Hot," "Simply Irresistible."
[Edited 1/31/07 18:30pm]

Slave2daGroove said:

I don't consider Robert Palmer a "blue-eyed soul singer," because IMO that term applies to white artists who in some manner appeal to soul music listeners and have a presence in that market. Palmer's songs never crossed over into U.S. black music markets, like various artists had (Hall & Oates, George Michael, Lisa Stansfield).
[Edited 1/31/07 18:28pm]

I for one, enjoyed his cover of "I didn't mean to turn you on". The original just sounded so metalic and plastic, while his seemed to be more soulful. Yes, Luther sang covers as well, but his renditions of songs tended to go all over the place. Sometimes thats good, but there are times that u just wanna head the song without the vocal acrobatics. I did know that there is was a set time that an artist had to wait to do a cover? To me it didn't matter which verison came out first, just as long as it was a decent cover and Palmer's were always decent. He also did a great version of "Mercy, Mercy, Me/I Want You". Very soulful.
[Edited 1/31/07 18:49pm]

shorttrini said:

Strangely enough, I'm going to agree with this. His covers were hit or miss IMO, but this one (and the Marvin medley) were the real hits.

Najee said:

i think its personal taste because i loath what Vandross did to his remakes...too much of that warbling turkey for my taste...yet i really dug Palmer's covers...And I wouldn't say that Palmer was another Pat Boone because he did not try to sanitize the music. He kept the genre that the song was intended to be in.

Further more, publishing rights had progressed by the 80's...Somebody could have nixed the re-makes...but they didn't. thats just my take on it all...I loved me both versions of I Didn't Mean To Turn You On *and* You Are In My System...and there wasn't any confusion in my neck of the woods about whose songs they were...especially the Cherelle song...it was Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis.

sosgemini said:

Nah, Robert Palmer's versions of "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On," "You Are in My System," "Early in the Morning" and "Tell Me I'm Not Dreaming (Too Good to Be True)" were not soul songs in the slightest, despite Palmer adding minimal creativity to them. They were never marketed to the same audiences in which those genres, nor were they really intended to be heard in those markets.

With Palmer, you had this feeling that if he was alive and still recording music he would be making covers of Tyrese's or Usher's recent music. If Palmer should have learned anything, it should have been the following:

* His first significant hit was as a member of The Power Station with "Some Like It Hot" -- AN ORIGINAL COMPOSITION.

* His first signifcant hit as a solo artist after more than a decade of trying to cover songs was "Addicted to Love" -- AN ORIGINAL COMPOSITION.

* He won Grammys for "Addicted to Love" and "Simply Irresistable" -- ORIGINAL COMPOSITIONS.

He should have gotten the point -- it was original compositions that put Palmer on the map, and made him a relevant star. And sorry, but deliberately swiping a new act's initial song and trying to push it out in the market as if it was his original composition (The System's "You Are in My System") while the new group was trying to copyright it is FOUL.

I'm not expecteing that some of Luther Vandross' most famous covers are liked by a certain audience -- after all, it wasn't like songs like "Superstar" or "If This World Were Mine" were meant to be geared toward a crossover audience in the first place. It still doesn't change the fact that Vandross' versions are some of the most memorable sides in the soul music genre over the past 20 years and are considered staples on Quiet Storm formats.
[Edited 1/31/07 19:52pm]

Najee said:

He never tried to PUSH "Your In My System", as his own. All he did was make his version of the song. If people had trouble figuring who's song it was,it was not his job to say something. It was totally the job of the System's people. I guess he sang those songs because he enjoyed them. He knew good soul music and for you to say that he would do an Usher song, if he were alive was taking it a little far. Usher knows nothing about soul music or being original. His first significant hit was "Bad Case Of Lovin You" not, "Some Like It Hot". As for your point about Luther crossing over...In the days when the original versions of the songs that you mentioned were released, there was no such thing as "cross over". All there was, was AM radio which, played everything. As much as I respected Luther as a singer, I still believe that his versions of other people's songs, were over done.