Robert Palmer – Bad Case Of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor)

Compass Point, 1979: Moon Martin’s song, Palmer’s Island hit

In 1979 at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas, Robert Palmer cut Bad Case Of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor) for his fifth solo album Secrets, released that June on Island. Palmer produced himself; Karl Pitterson engineered. The song was written by John “Moon” Martin, not Palmer. The single came out in May 1979. The band on the track includes Kenny Mazur on guitar, Pierre Brock on bass, and Dony Wynn on drums, with Jack Waldman and Steve Robbins on keyboards. The take is short (about 3:10) and built for radio: hard guitar figure, shout-along “doctor, doctor” hook, Palmer’s sharp vocal on top.

Palmer had already mixed rock, R&B, and Caribbean session players on earlier Island albums. At Compass Point he kept the rhythm section tight and the guitars dry. The lyric plays the love-as-illness joke straight; Palmer sings it like a bar-band A-side, not a joke track. Island pushed the single hard in North America. It reached number 14 on the US Billboard Hot 100, number one on Canada’s RPM chart, and number 61 in the UK. Secrets itself peaked at number 19 on the Billboard 200.

The video and TV clips from the era show Palmer in a suit, already shaping the sharp image later tied to Addicted to Love, but the sound here is late-1970s rock radio rather than mid-1980s video-pop. Moon Martin’s own version exists; Palmer’s became the hit most listeners know. On Secrets it sits beside a Todd Rundgren cover (Can We Still Be Friends), underlining Palmer as a selective interpreter as much as a writer.

Compass Point in the late 1970s was already a meeting place for Island artists who wanted heat, space, and a rhythm section that could lock without sounding stiff. Palmer used that room to keep Bad Case short and loud. The « doctor, doctor » call is easy to shout back; the guitar figure is easy to recognize in three notes. That is why the single still shows up on classic-rock playlists next to heavier guitar acts.