Robert Palmer (singer)

Palmer died from a heart attack in a Paris hotel room on 26 September 2003 at age 54. He had been in the French capital after recording a television appearance in London for Yorkshire TV, a retrospective titled My Kinda People. His long-term partner, Mary Ambrose, was not with him at his death. Among those who paid tribute were Duran Duran, stating: "He was a very dear friend and a great artist. This is a tragic loss to the British music industry." He was buried in Lugano, Switzerland.

In 1997, Palmer performed with Rod Stewart at Wembley.

In 1995 Palmer released a greatest hits album, which reached number 4 in the UK. Also in 1995 he reunited with other members of Power Station to record a second album. Bassist John Taylor eventually backed out of the project, to be replaced by Bernard Edwards. Palmer and the rest of the band completed the album Living in Fear (1996), and had just begun touring when Edwards died from pneumonia.

In 1994, Palmer released Honey to mixed reviews. While the album failed to produce any hit singles in the US, he did find success in the UK with the release of three modest hit singles "Girl U Want", "Know by Now," and "You Blow Me Away".

Palmer expanded his range even further for his next album, Don't Explain (1990). It featured two UK top 10 hits with covers of Bob Dylan's "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" (a collaboration with UB40) and Marvin Gaye's "Mercy Mercy Me". Throughout the 1990s, Palmer ventured further into diverse material. The 1992 album Ridin' High was a tribute to the Tin Pan Alley era.

Concerned about the rising crime rate in Nassau, and having landed a deal with EMI, Palmer moved to Lugano, Switzerland in 1987 and set up his own recording studio. Producing Heavy Nova in 1988, Palmer again returned to experimenting, this time with bossa nova rhythms, heavy rock and white-soul balladeering. He repeated his previous success of "Addicted to Love" with the video of "Simply Irresistible", again with a troupe of female "musicians". The song reached number 2 in the US and was Palmer's final top ten hit there. The ballad "She Makes My Day" also proved to be a hit in the UK, peaking at number 6. In 1989, he won a second Grammy for "Simply Irresistible", which would later be featured in the Tony Award-winning musical Contact. At the 1989 Brit Awards, Palmer received his second nomination for Best British Male, and "Simply Irresistible" was nominated for Best British Single. Rolling Stone magazine voted Palmer the best-dressed rock star for 1990.

Palmer recorded the album Riptide at Compass Point Studios in 1985, recruiting Thompson and Andy Taylor to play on some tracks plus Power Station record producer Bernard Edwards, who worked with Thompson in Chic, to helm the production. Riptide featured the single "Addicted to Love", which reached number 1 in the United States and number 5 in the United Kingdom. The single was accompanied by a memorable 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 models simulating musicians. Donovan also directed videos for the hits "Simply Irresistible" and "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On". In September 1986, Palmer performed "Addicted to Love" at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles. In 1987, he won the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for "Addicted to Love". At the 1987 Brit Awards, Palmer received his first nomination for Best British Male.

April 1983 saw the release of Pride. While not as commercially successful as Clues, it featured the title song and Palmer's cover of the System's "You Are in My System", with the System's David Frank on keyboards. On 31 May 1983, Palmer's concert at the Hammersmith Palais was recorded and broadcast on BBC Radio 1. On 23 July 1983, Palmer performed at Duran Duran's charity concert at Aston Villa football ground, where he struck up friendships with members of Duran Duran that would spawn the supergroup the Power Station.

Palmer's next album was an artistic departure, concentrating on pure rock. 1979's Secrets produced his second top 20 single with Moon Martin's "Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor)". The number 14 hit also gave Palmer his second Billboard Hot 100 year-end chart hit. The following year saw the release of Clues, produced by Palmer and featuring Chris Frantz and Gary Numan, which generated hits on both sides of the Atlantic, first with the radio-friendly single "Johnny and Mary" and then "Looking for Clues". Catchy music videos matching the synth-pop stylings of new wave gave him much-needed exposure to a younger audience. The success was repeated with the 1982 EP release of Some Guys Have All the Luck. As he settled into the 1980s, Palmer's increasing commercial success as a performer fueled his work as a producer, including on Jamaican ska legend Desmond Dekker's 1981 album Compass Point. A few years later, he helped Island label-mate John Martyn in the production of his album, Sapphire.

In 1978, he released Double Fun, a collection of Caribbean-influenced rock, including a cover of "You Really Got Me". The album reached the top 50 on the US Billboard chart and scored a top 20 single with the Andy Fraser-penned "Every Kinda People". The song has been covered by other artists including Chaka Demus and Pliers, Randy Crawford, the Mint Juleps (produced by Trevor Horn), and Amy Grant. It reached number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100.

After relocating with his wife to New York City, Palmer released Pressure Drop, named for the cover version of the reggae hit by Toots and the Maytals, in November 1975 (featuring Motown bassist James Jamerson). He toured with Little Feat to promote the reggae- and rock-infused album.

Island Records signed Palmer to a solo deal in 1974. His first solo album, Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley, recorded in 1974 in New Orleans, Louisiana, was heavily influenced by the music of Little Feat and the funk fusion of the Meters, who acted as the backing band along with producer/guitarist Lowell George of Little Feat. Unsuccessful in the UK, both the album and single reached the top 100 in the US. Notably, "Sailin' Shoes" (the album's first track, and a Little Feat cover), Palmer's own "Hey Julia", and the Allen Toussaint-penned title track carry virtually the same rhythm, and were packaged on the album as a "trilogy" without a pause between them.

In 1970, he joined the 12-piece jazz-rock fusion band Dada, which featured singer Elkie Brooks and her husband Pete Gage. After a year, Palmer, Brooks, and Gage formed soul/rock band Vinegar Joe. Palmer played rhythm guitar in the band, and shared lead vocals with Brooks. Signed to the Island Records label, the band released three albums: Vinegar Joe (1972), Rock 'n' Roll Gypsies (1972), and Six Star General (1973), before disbanding in March 1974. Brooks later said Palmer "was a very good-looking guy", and that female fans were happy to find that Brooks and Palmer were not romantically linked.

Palmer's first major break came with the departure of singer Jess Roden from the band The Alan Bown Set in 1969, after which Palmer was invited to London to sing on the band's single "Gypsy Girl". The vocals for the album The Alan Bown!, originally recorded by Roden (and released in the US that way), were re-recorded by Palmer after the success of the single. According to music journalist Paul Lester, Palmer rose from northern clubs in England to become "elegant and sophisticated" and the master of several styles.

Palmer met Sue, his future wife, at Slough railway station in 1969, attracted by her style (silver-coloured boots and a matching mini-dress) and by the science-fiction book she was reading. They married two years later, and had two children. The family moved to New York City in the mid-1970s and then to the Bahamas a few years later. In 1987, Palmer and his family relocated to Lugano, Switzerland. The couple divorced in 1993.

Having started in the music industry in the 1960s, including a spell with Vinegar Joe, he found success in the 1980s, both in his solo career and with the Power Station, scoring Top 10 hits in the United Kingdom and the United States. Three of his hit singles, including "Addicted to Love", featured music videos directed by British fashion photographer Terence Donovan.

Robert Allen Palmer (19 January 1949 – 26 September 2003) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. He was known for his powerful, soulful voice and sartorial elegance, and for his stylistic explorations, combining soul, funk, jazz, rock, pop, reggae, and blues. While his "four-decade career incorporated every genre of music", Palmer is best known "for the pounding rock-soul classic, "Addicted to Love", and its accompanying video, which came to epitomise the glamour and excesses of the 1980s."

Palmer was born in 1949 in Batley, Yorkshire. When he was only a few months old, he moved with his family to Malta, where his father worked in British naval intelligence. He was influenced as a child by blues, soul, and jazz music on American Forces Radio and by his parents' musical tastes. His family returned to the UK when he was 12.