Simply Irresistible (song)
"Simply Irresistible" is the first single released by English rock singer Robert Palmer from the 1988 studio album Heavy Nova and is presented in one of the most distinctive and memorable music videos of the 1980s.
| "Simply Irresistible" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Standard artwork (7-inch vinyl single pictured); North American and Japanese editions use different colors | ||||
| Single by Robert Palmer | ||||
| from the album Heavy Nova | ||||
| A-side |
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| B-side |
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| Released | June 22, 1988 (US); 1989 (UK) | |||
| Format | Vinyl 7" and 12" Compact Disc | |||
| Recorded | Lugano, Switzerland, 1987 | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 4:14 | |||
| Label | EMI, Manhattan | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Robert Palmer | |||
| Producer(s) | Robert Palmer | |||
| Robert Palmer singles chronology | ||||
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In 1988, the song reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart (behind "Sweet Child o' Mine" by Guns N' Roses) and was #1 on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for three weeks.[1] It also earned Palmer his second Grammy Award the following year, and the song was nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Single.[2]
Along with "Addicted to Love" and "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On", "Simply Irresistible" is among Palmer's most recognized songs, in part because of the iconic music video by renowned British fashion photographer Terence Donovan. The video was famously parodied in a Pepsi commercial in 1989, which in turn was parodied in another Pepsi commercial during Super Bowl XXXVI featuring Britney Spears, and again in the music video for Ingrid Michaelson's single "Girls Chase Boys" in 2014. The video was also parodied in an episode of the television show Northern Exposure.
The videos show Palmer surrounded by enigmatic women, styled in the manner of the artist Patrick Nagel. The video featured the leading supermodels and leading dancers that he met while visiting the Kentucky Derby (Karen Aubrey McElfresh, Kim Jones and Cheryl Day); Donovan's lighting and direction set the style for that era of music videos.
Notable appearances in other media
- "Simply Irresistible" later appeared in the 1999 Tony Award-winning musical Contact.
- It was later featured in the 2000 film American Psycho.
- The song was used in the 2013 animated special Madly Madagascar and in the video game Saints Row IV, as well as the show Happy Endings.
- This song played in an episode of the American reality television series Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team on 4 September 2007.
- The song has been heard in various TV commercials over the years, including an 1989 ad for Pepsi (Britney Spears did a version of the song in a Pepsi ad that ran during Super Bowl XXXV); a 2018 ad for Chase starring Grand Slam-winning jockey Victor Espinoza; [3] and a 2020 ad for Applebee's to promote their new Irresist-A-Bowls.[4] It was used by NBC Sports to promote the Spanish-language television coverage in the United States of the 2019 Copa América on Telemundo.
References
- Whitburn, Joel (July 2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits (8th ed.). New York: Billboard Books. p. 479. ISBN 0-8230-7499-4.
- BRITs Profile: Robert Palmer Archived 2014-06-23 at the Wayback Machine. Brits.co.uk. Retrieved 14 April 2012
- "JPMorgan Chase QuickPay TV Commercial, 'Victor's Way' Featuring Victor Espinoza}". Ispot.tv. Retrieved May 7, 2018.
- "Applebee's Irresist-A-Bowls Ad". POPisms.com. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
- "1988 The Year in Music & Video: Top Pop Singles". Billboard. 100 (52): Y-20. December 24, 1988.
- "Billboard Top 100 – 1988". Retrieved October 3, 2016.
External links
- Simply Irresistible at Discogs
- Simply Irresistible on YouTube
- How to make a Robert Palmer Girl costume and make up