Customer Reviews

Ridin High

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When I think of Swing or Big Band music, a lot names come to mind, but one I never would have thought of was Robert Palmer, the singer of dreadful 80s tunes like Irresistable. In my youth I was *not* a Palmer fan. But one day I was listening to the radio and I heard his rendition of "Mercy Mercy Me." Well, I thought it was great, even if he was the singer, so I bought the CD it was on ("Don't Explain"). Some of the other songs were okay, such as Housework, but I really didn't get into it until I got to the title track. When I heard the opening music, and then his voice, I was hooked. And then came Aeroplane, and lastly You're My Thrill. Those songs were great! But sadly they only made up a small segment of the CD. Well, a couple of years later, and he released "Ridin' High," a fantastic set of swinging standards and other finger-snappin' cuts. No, it's not the greatest versions of these songs on the planet, but he delivers them with real zeal and love. His voice can alternate between sultry and sizzling with ease. And what's greatest is that he turned to this style of music years before it became trendy. I highly recommend this disk.

Pulled this CD out the other day for a listen--had forgotten how much I enjoyed it. Palmer released this a long time before it was fashionable for rock singers to cut standards albums, and he did his with great class and style. It's not the usual collection of songs, and the arrangements are very fresh and unique. I highly recommend it to people who enjoy the classics. Not your run-of-the-mill lounge singer act.

Ridin High is a 1992 album release by Robert Palmer that finds the singer diving headfirst into pre rock era jazz and romantic standards, completely abandoning the dance friendly hard rock and R&B blue eyed soul of his most famous recordings. Actually, Palmer grew up on this music and occassionally recorded songs in this vein on previous albums. Here, the singer stretches a bit too thin as he seems to struggle at times to capture the emotion and handle the vocal challenges of this type of music. Sinatra or Bennett he isn't, but at times Palmer shows he has the versatility vocally to do justice to these standards. Uptempo fare like "No, Not Much" and "Goody Goody" suit him well, but Palmer handles himself on slower standards like "Love Me Or Leave Me", "The Tender Trap", and beautiful haunting rendition of Billie Holiday's "Don't Explain", possibly the album's highlight. Casual fans will distress the lack of rock oriented material.

Definitely one of the very best vocal albums I've heard. Robert Palmer performs these tunes with a great deal of passion and taste. The arrangements are incredible.
Alot of afficianados will never accept someone with palmer's background as a success in this genre. In my mind he certainly is.
You can tell he did the album for the love of it. He certainly could have made a more commercial album.
Moooove over sacred cows of vocaldom, Robert Palmer has turned out one sensuous work of art.

Normally, these superb standards--Tender Trap, Witchcraft, Honeysuckle Rose-- are surefire hits for any artist. But in the hands of Robert Palmer they fail to sizzle. He gets points for being out of the gate early on putting together such a disc, which today is commonplace. But the attempt falls altogether flat.

I stumbled on to this CD by accident. A few months after I helped a friend move, I found the CD in the back of my trunk. I decided to give it a try and was surprised and delighted by Robert Palmers' diversity and style. I still haven't told my friend I have her CD.

What's to say about Robert Palmer in general....Just that he's hard to catch in specific style or manner. He can rock, make you dance or just mellow out in jazz with his own Robert Palmer sauce. This man makes you like every style in music.
This album is a great starter for those who want to broaden their music experience with jazz / bossanova music.
Don't be mislead by the first few uptempo tracks. When "aeroplane " starts it's feet up and mellow down.
Be carefull however with trusting my review....I like all the Palmer albums. A good one to start with would be "Secrets ".
Have fun.

Great renditions of familiar classics; and a reflection on the depth of the man and his music as well. Two thumbs up.

Riptide...really captures the dilema. Inspired the name of one of the yachts in my novel and the chapter title as well.Tales from the Pandoran Age: Book One: Silurian World

Dante D'Anthony

[...]

What a surprise when I was searching for Johnny Mercer vocal tracks to stumble on Palmer as a link! I was skeptical...then delighted. Palmer brings the emotion to these songs that they so richly deserve and the unique charts are so refreshing. He comes at this collection of songs from a tatally different angle...a new style, yet in some ways similar to Johnny Mercer's style - not vocal acrobatics featuring his pipes, but careful, feeling interpretations of the lyric. Lastly I am sorry that he only recorded this one album in this genre...our loss. The best track might be Do Nothin' Til You Hear From Me...yes I am an Ellington fan too! Enjoy!

I was very disappointed listening to this CD. I expected a much better selection regarding high standard recordings.

Patricia Bucino