Back in the days when...

[PeterG]

...the back up singers/dancers were hot and played guitar!
Notice that her axe is the same as BD's
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeZHB3ozglQ


....Chuck Berry was glad to be in the West long before the Beatles were glad to be back in the East
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23y2Cz40zs4


....pianists didn't need stools
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQfpc1KUZeU

...a singer in leathers and one leather glove, long before Alvin Stardust, Michael Jackson and Rob Halford sang a brutally fast punk rock song in 1.48....and that coupled with a disability, no wonder he was an idol of Ian Dury's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDfInULDW7o

....the bespectacled, jerky, vocally acrobatic, guitar-playing singer wasn't Elvis Costello
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb7KyPSbFqo

[GuitarGeek]

Quick note about that Chuck Berry clip: that album that Dick Clark holds up, Chuck Berry Is On Top, is one of the best rock n roll LP's EVER. Yeah, it's essentially a "best of" mostly gathering together songs from some of his better singles, and some people will point to somewhat more deluxe packages, but this album has one thing that no other release (apart from a rather expensive "complete sessions" boxset), and that's the great instrumental Blues For Hawaiians. If you want to know what's so cool about Chuck Berry, this is the place to go, as far as I'm concerned.

[Dana5140]

Love the Bo Diddly clip!

[Lopez]

Love the Bo Diddly clip!

Same here. And love the processed hair and the wigs on the chicks. Man, I need to see some old Ronettes clips.

[BravadoNJ]

then Robert Palmer changed all that......

[PeterG]

then Robert Palmer changed all that......

Yea, I think he took a lot of his inspiration from these 50s and 60s line ups. I mean, who else in the 80s had hot chicks in matching clothes playing instruments?

[GuitarGeek]

Yea, I think he took a lot of his inspiration from these 50s and 60s line ups. I mean, who else in the 80s had hot chicks in matching clothes playing instruments?

Well, I think the Robert Palmer videos were meant as a commentary on fashion models and how interchangeable they were and how most of the time they functioned as walking mannequins. Or at least, that was the case with the Addicted To Love video. The subsequent clips were just attempts at repeat and expand upon the initial formula.

Apart from that one thing, I think Robert Palmer's onstage persona was drawn more from the Rat Pack/lounge lizard kind of thing. I think Palmer was trying to be the English Frank Sinatra, but singing contemporary music (and singing it properly).