Supertramp — My Kind Of Lady

JUL 01 1983 · 12:00

Supertramp — My Kind Of Lady (1983) Director: Kenny Ortega Era: Early MTV Era (1983) - Peak of the music video boom; British prog-pop act Supertramp embracing the new promotional format with a stylized 1950s-retro concept video tied to their final Roger Hodgson-era single release. High curatorial value as a confirmed Kenny Ortega-directed early music video — a rare artifact of his pre-Hollywood directorial career. Additionally significant as Supertramp's final promotional video from their classic lineup era, making it a document of both a band transition point and the early MTV cultural moment. The production's deliberate 1950s aesthetic, synchronized choreography, and warm muted palette make it a clean, well-preserved example of theatrically staged early-1980s performance video production. Context: Released in January/February 1983, 'My Kind of Lady' arrived at a pivotal moment for Supertramp: it was the last single issued during the band's classic lineup including Roger Hodgson, who departed in 1983 to pursue a solo career. The song itself is a deliberate 1950s stylistic homage — Billboard described it as a throwback to 1956 with 'chunky piano, bleating sax.' The video extends this nostalgia visually, with Kenny Ortega staging the band as a doo-wop group of the Eisenhower era. This retromania was culturally consonant with the early 1980s moment, when acts like Sha Na Na, Stray Cats, and Robert Gordon had already popularized 1950s revivalism. The video also lands squarely in the formative MTV window (1981–1983), when British rock bands were rapidly adopting the music video format as a primary promotional vehicle for the US market. Director notes: The 'My Kind of Lady' video (1983) is among Ortega's early directorial music video works, produced during the active MTV launch period when music videos were becoming essential promotional tools. Per Wikipedia, Ortega directed the video as a period-authentic 1950s doo-wop and rock-and-roll tableau, with the band depicting themselves as a 1950s group — band members even shaved their trademark beards and moustaches to achieve the period look. The production reflects Ortega's signature choreographic precision: band members perform synchronized small choreographies, snapping fingers and providing backing vocals in a theatrically staged setting. The warm, muted visual palette and controlled studio lighting are consistent with Ortega's camera-aware choreography methodology learned under Gene Kelly's mentorship. This video predates Ortega's better-known music video work for Madonna ('Material Girl') and his later film directorial career.