There have been many songs about a love so strong it takes over the brain's decision-making process, but Robert Palmer hit on a new way to say it in "Addicted To Love," a #1 hit in America.
"The song could have been about substance abuse but I lightened it up," he wrote in his Addictions: Volume 1 compilation. "It could have been drugs or food or drink but if you make it love, that's more attractive."
Palmer wanted this song to be a duet with Chaka Khan, and he almost got his wish. He recorded it with her, but Chaka's label, Warner Brothers Records, would not allow her voice to be used on the record, so Palmer had to erase her part and re-record her high notes before releasing it. Chaka Khan did appear on Steve Winwood's "
Higher Love," which beat out this song for the 1987 Record of the Year Grammy.
The video shows Palmer singing in front of a "band" of beautiful women who look exactly alike. They wear lots of makeup and identical outfits as they pretend to play the instruments. The video became an icon of the '80s and is constantly parodied, including in a Pepsi commercial with Britney Spears.
The funny thing about the video is that the models posing as a band were selected precisely because they did NOT know how to play the instruments. As a result, each girl is keeping her own time and moving to a different beat.
One of the girls in the video was "bassist" Mak Gilchrist. She recalled to Q magazine June 2009: "I was 21 and got the part on the strength of my modeling book. We were meant to look and 'act' like showroom mannequins. Director Terence Donovan got us tipsy on a bottle of wine but as were having our makeup retouched, I lost balance on my heels and knocked the top of my guitar into the back of Robert's head, and his face then hit the microphone."
Gilchrist added: "I remember feeling an acute sense of embarrassment when I first saw how sexy the video was. The most unusual place I saw it was on a huge screen on the side of a Tokyo building."
The "love is an addiction" theme is a common lyrical trope, also successfully used the 1983 Huey Lewis & the News hit "
I Want A New Drug." Palmer, who died of a heart attack in 2003 at age 54, said that he wrote the song about what it's like having an addictive personality.
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Who were the girls in the video?
Noblemania tracked them down and confirmed their identities. They are:
Julia Bolino (guitar)
Patty Elias (guitar)
Kathy Davies (drums)
Julie Pankhurst (keyboard)
Mak Gilchrist (bass)
Gilchrist had done commercials; Bolino and Davies had been in other music videos, but Pankhurst and Elias were just starting out. They recall Palmer being very professional and polite throughout the shoot, and no flirting - his wife was there.
Palmer's look in the video wasn't an act. He usually appeared in sharp suits, an image that stood out on MTV where formalwear was frowned upon. He also had a head start: Palmer was making videos since the '70s, years before MTV launched in 1981.
It all started with a guitar riff that came to Palmer in a dream. He told Q magazine in 1988, "That noisy riff woke me up. I went downstairs, got out the tape recorder, then went back to bed. Next morning, I thought, Phew, caught one there!"
Palmer earned his first Grammy Award when he won Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male, for this song at the 1987 ceremony. He won the same award two years later for "Simply Irresistible."
Elton John's lyricist, Bernie Taupin, makes a pretty good case that the models in the video were influenced by the song "
Bennie And The Jets," where he wrote about a futuristic rock band of androgynous beauties. Said Taupin: "I can't help but believe that that Robert Palmer video with all the identical models somehow paid a little lip service to The Jets."
Palmer had been playing in bands since the late '60s and released his first solo album in 1974. He covered a range of genres, often putting Caribbean sounds into his music (he lived in the Bahamas), and had modest success on the charts, notably with the songs "
Bad Case of Loving You" and "
Every Kinda People." In 1985 he found the secret sauce when he fronted the supergroup The Power Station, where he was backed by two members of Duran Duran and one from Chic. They had a big hit with "
Some Like It Hot," a bombastic rocker that used just the right amount of synthesizer. Palmer incorporated that sound into his
Riptide album, released later in 1985, with impressive results. "Addicted To Love" was a huge hit, and "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On" was also big. His next album,
Heavy Nova, included another big hit with a video that reprised the models: "
Simply Irresistible."
Palmer performed this on the March 15, 1986 episode of Saturday Night Live.
This is the tune most coveted by Slade frontman Noddy Holder. He told Soundchecks Music Review: "The one main song that I wish that I'd written and recorded is 'Addicted to Love' by Robert Palmer. To me, that's a perfect pop song. Everything about it really hits the nail on the head."
Palmer bet against himself while this song was climbing the charts. He recalled: "There's a phone number you can ring for Billboard magazine to let you know your chart position and we were flying from Tokyo to Hawaii and had to stop in Guam and we had made a bet as to what number 'Addicted To Love' was going to be and I lost. I bet on number two but it went to one! It was a bet over a garment... a black and white cashmere cloak! But I ended up winning it back the following week."
This was the first Hot 100 entry with the word "addicted" in the title. There wasn't another until Simple Plan charted with their song "
Addicted" in 2003.
This was a big live song for Tina Turner, who added it to her repertoire in 1986. Her version can be seen on her Tina Live In Europe DVD, released in 1988 along with a music video of her performing the song.
In the 1992 Roseanne episode "Mommy Nearest," Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) lies to her new boyfriend and says she was one of the girls from the video.
Addicted To Love is also the name of a 1997 romantic comedy starring Meg Ryan and Matthew Broderick. A cover by Neneh Cherry was used in the movie.
Movies to use this song include:
Prom Pact (2023)
Welcome to Marwen (2018)
Strange Magic (2015)
What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012)
Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997)
The Evening Star (1996)
Ready to Wear (1994)
Cocktail (1988)
You Can't Hurry Love (1988)
The Morning After (1986)
Dangerously Close (1986)
TV shows to use it include:
Black Mirror ("San Junipero" - 2016)
Glee ("Tested" - 2014)
Beverly Hills, 90210 ("Wildfire" - 1991)
The A-Team ("The Sound of Thunder" - 1986)
Palmer performed this song to open the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards, where it won for Best Male Video.
Weird Al Yankovic recorded a parody called "Addicted To Spuds" on his 1986 album Polka Party!. It's about a guy who just can't get enough potatoes.