[4][5] The single "Addicted to Love" was accompanied by an iconic and much-imitated music video, directed by Terence Donovan, in which Palmer is surrounded by a bevy of near-identically clad, heavily made-up female "musicians," either mimicking or mocking the painting style of Patrick Nagel.

For the album, Palmer collaborated with two former members of his band the Power Station: guitarist Andy Taylor and drummer Tony Thompson.

[9] The title track of the album is a cover of a 1933 song written by Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn and first recorded by Eddy Duchin and his orchestra.

[11] In a contemporary review music critic Robert Christgau gave the album a "C+" and described it as "his pop breakthrough" and added that "what makes him barely listenable is his holdings in r&b.

"[14] In a retrospective review for AllMusic, critic Tim DiGravina gave the album four and a half out of five stars and wrote that "Riptide packages Robert Palmer's voice and suave personality into a commercial series of mostly rocking songs that seem custom-tailored to be chart hits.