It Could Happen To You

This is an old favorite of mine and I smile whenever it plays in my headphones so I thought I would share it. It’s a well known jazz standard and when I bought the album “Heavy Nova” by Robert Palmer all those years ago I certainly didn’t expect to hear it. What was even more surprising was that it was done so exquisitely well. On the same album as his mega hit “Simply Irresistible” and the Gap Bands great remake “Early In The Morning”, “It Could Happen To You” was snuggled away and vastly overshadowed but when I heard the vocals and those strings I was floored. I was never a really big Robert Palmer fan before this album but after this album I was because this album definitely showed his range. This album also contains his version of The Jackson’s “Tell Me I’m Not Dreaming”, the easy, breezy “She Makes My Day” and the mellow “Between Us” and it’s those songs plus “It Could” that clearly demonstrated his ability and willingness to step out of the box and go against peoples perception of who they thought he was.

Robert had been recording music pretty much all of his life but it wasn’t until his stint as point man in Power Station with a few members of Duran Duran (when that group took a hiatus from each other, remember Arcadia?). The success of Power Station along with his album previous album “Riptide” propelled “Heavy Nova” to number one here in the States. You remember the video for “Simply Irresistible” right? Does the all girl look alike band with the short skirts “playing” the instruments ring a bell? That wasn’t the reason why I bought the album but it wasn’t not the reason either (if you know what I mean). To be honest I forgot what the reason was that I bought “Heavy Nova” but I’m glad I did.

“It Could Happen To You” is a classic jazz standard that’s been recorded by such luminaries like Dinah Washington and Chet Baker. It was even done by the late Heath Ledger in the movie “A Knight’s Tale (who gets an A for effort). It’s a great song with a great message of be careful because this love thing could happen to you like it happened to me. With lyrics like “Guard your dreams at night / lock your heart up tight / it could happen to you” and “All I did was wonder / how your arms would be / and it happened to me” makes this the perfect cautionary tale about love done in such a lush way that you can’t believe it’s Robert Palmer doing it but it was him doing it and he did it well.