Robert Palmer's album "Sneakin' Sally Through The Alley"

It’s hard to imagine a life without a soundtrack. Music is an everlasting and evolving art whose importance goes without saying. The first album featured in this new weekly column is a personal favorite, “Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley.” Robert Allen Palmer, 54, was an English singer and songwriter that was born Jan. 19, 1949 in Batley, U.K. and died Sept. 26, 2003 in Paris, France.

He was known for his powerful soul and voice, his stylistic explorations, combining soul, funk, jazz, rock, pop, reggae, and blues; all of which are on full display within this album. At 35 minutes and 24 seconds, the debut solo album of Island Records label company produced by Steve Smith peaked on the Billboard 200 list at No. 107 and stayed there for 15 consecutive weeks. This album truly has it all in eight songs: it’s not too long where it can make one disengaged; it’s not too short where you feel unsatisfied; it covers New Orleans soul most notably from the pen and piano of Allen Toussaint with an homage of “Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley” being the name of the album and of the first track on the record; it’s got slow jams; funky dance music; and relaxing rock to top it off.