Celebrating thirty years of Robert Palmer's 'Simply Irresistible'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrGw_cOgwa8

When I was seven, in the summer of 1988, this was my favorite song ever.

By the time I heard Fresh Prince + DJ Jazzy Jeff's 'Summertime' some years later, I was embarrassed by my former favorite. 1980s backlash kicked in, I was a teenager, Snoop Dogg was way cooler, etc.

Don't get me wrong, it's an absolutely atrocious song with an accompanying promo clip that must have seemed dated within six months.

But to quote a much smarter man than myself: and yet.

(thanks Ned)

Why do I still like this song? Is it because I now am able to not take it so seriously and appreciate it with a cheeky wink? Is it just a funny song that I've heard too many times and can now subsequently laugh at with no harm? Is it actually just kind of a good song, structurally speaking?

(brace yourselves for the worst pun you've encountered in quite a while)

Is it because this song is, after all, simply irresistible?

In any case, it's been thirty summers since that summer. This feels like something worth memorializing.

It's quite resistible, for reasons I explained here.. And I love Robert Palmer.

The emphatic two-note synth hook is an ice pick.

"Emphatic ice pick to the ear" is a 100% accurate description of that sound.

And the guitar solo. Man, it's bad.

Leaning towards "so bad it's good" right now.

i could have sworn there's another thread about this song, and the line "she's so fine, there's no telling where the money went." weird. song is good but i kinda overdid it when i got into it and, like a lot of corporate rock of that period, it's so loud and in your ears... it's in the service of the content, maybe, but there's not a lot of details or nuance for me to come back and discover.

but there's not a lot of details or nuance for me to come back and discover.

This observation made me actual lol. Come on, man. Big "corporate rock" single from 1988 and you want details and nuance???!?!?! We're making HITS here, Doc! Not ART!

Also, yeah: "She's so fine, there's no telling where the money went." <— Sure, maybe for you, but for the rest of us, it's a mystery. Did she spend all the money on makeup? Clothes? Cosmetic surgery?

The next line is even more bizarre: "She's all mine, there's no other way to go." <— So, you're not upset about the money being gone? Wait, are we even still talking about the money?

Gloriously ideotic.

Song is amazing

I heard this at Walmart late last night.

It's "Addicted To Love"'s New Jersey, innit? Palmer doesn't even look to be having as good a time in the video.

Palmer doesn't even look to be having as good a time in the video.

I think his super serious, stone-faced delivery in the video is what sells it. For me, anyway.

Because he fucking MEANS it, y'know?

Or that's how I take it.

Industrial high-gloss funk-pop soul-metal. Rhyming "inscrutable" with "irrefutable." Amazing video that's totally Devo. I can't imagine any workable definition of "poptimism" where this song isn't considered incredible.

I'll admit the bridge is bat shit crazy -- first time I heard "oblige" and "endorse" in sentences.

Just wanna post this in here too in case anyone hasn't heard it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92wCPfqyVbg

(thanks Ned)

Here to help.

One of my favorite invocations of this song, via a link to this NYT piece that Alfred will want to read and which will give him hives. From 1988, on the campaign trail for Bush, one Ronald Reagan is quoted:

Mr. Reagan is particularly pleased, those close to him say, by signs of the effect he has had in making the country more conservative. The Bush campaign has asked that he go to rallies at colleges, because he remains extremely popular among young people.

''You know, it wasn't so very long ago that all I had to do to start a campus riot was show up,'' he told students at Macomb Community College in Warren, Mich. Then, in response to cheers, the 77-year-old President added one of the references to popular music that he uses to reach across generations. ''If you ask me,'' he said, ''as Robert Palmer has been singing recently, 'You're simply irresistible.' ''

There are those who find Mr. Reagan resistible, of course. ''He's blowing smoke, telling everybody how he got jobs for everyone,'' said James Coyle, a 28-year-old electrician and Dukakis supporter who was working at the Republican rally at Voorhees. ''What about the homeless? We didn't even see that as a major issue eight years ago? Now there's a whole new class called the working homeless.''

i enjoy this song

Whatever virtues it ekes out, it can't help but crumble under the shark-jumpiness/New-Jerseyness/Twist-again-like-last-summerness of it all. Given how many moderately successful singles he had before and immediately after "Addicted", I wonder how it felt to retread the tires and skid to the top again? "Is this all they want from me?"

and he did it again!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y1cchniY2Y

better quality:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaR8qPsfG2I

Also when RP comes up, I always feel compelled to mention that on the day he died, I pulled into a rainy parking lot and saw a Delorean in a handicap space, with the correct tags.

it’s what he would have wanted

"You're Amazing" stirs some distant memory that hitting 5 on the US charts is plausible, yet I can't say for sure I'd ever heard it. As a scroll down the wikipedia page I see he released a cover of "Girl U Want" in 1994, which fits as an attempt for a four-peat while being incredibly sad.

"You're Amazing" barely crawled into the top thirty.

I’ve come to love a lot of Robert Palmer songs but this one is the sort of thing that put me off him for years, that whole suited-up sexpest-cum-malfunctioning boogie-bot vibe

This “version” of RP seems like a westworld robot copy of the guy who worked with Lowell George and the Meters years earlier

He was also a Comsat Angels fan.

Would’ve loved to hear him cover Independence Day or I’m Falling tbh

He duets on Chasing Shadows. It's alright.

1980s backlash kicked in

People need to get that this was a real thing.

I love this song.

I like Addicted to Love a lot better. Makes me feel human.

1980s backlash kicked in

People need to get that this was a real thing.

If there's anyone who denies that it happened, they didn't live through it.

I stood tapping my foot for most of the nineties and hugging my New Order albums waiting for the backlash to end.

The first eighties comps came out in 1992-1993, by the way.

Whenever I think of this song I picture Donald Trump listening to it in 1988 wondering what some of the words mean.

we sang this in high school choir and my friend (a sophomore) hadn't heard it before. the choir teacher played the Palmer recording and he said "THIS SOUNDS LIKE DEATH METAL".

also the song is classic for its cheez

The first eighties comps came out in 1992-1993, by the way.

Living in Oblivion!

yep! Intelligently compiled too.

Very. Getting those on release was quite refreshing.

What about “I didn’t mean to turn you on”

^^yeah that's the one

See, another massive #2 hit, an example of how adroitly Palmer could adapt electronic R&B to his own ends.

had always assumed this was a cover. apparently written by the bassist from FRee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwCHFaarTjY