Robert Palmer

Robert Allen Palmer (19 January 1949 – 26 September 2003) was an English singer and songwriter. He was known for his powerful and soulful voice, sartorial elegance and stylistic explorations, combining soul, funk, jazz, rock, pop, reggae and blues. His 1985 song "Addicted to Love" and its accompanying video came to "epitomise the glamour and excesses of the 1980s".<ref name="TelegraphObit" />

Having begun in the music industry in the 1960s, Palmer had a spell with Vinegar Joe in the 1970s and then found success in the 1980s. It came both in his solo career and with the Power Station, scoring Top 10 hits in the United Kingdom and the United States.<ref name="British Hit Singles & Albums">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Rockopedia">Template:Cite book</ref> Three of his hit singles, including "Addicted to Love", featured music videos directed by British fashion photographer Terence Donovan.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Palmer received a number of awards throughout his career, including two Grammy Awards for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance and an MTV Video Music Award. He was also nominated for the Brit Award for British Male Solo Artist in both 1987 and 1989.<ref name="BritAwards">BRITs Profile: Robert Palmer Template:Webarchive. Brits.co.uk. Retrieved 14 April 2012</ref><ref>Profile: Robert Palmer. Rock on the Net. Retrieved 14 April 2012</ref> He died at the age of 54 from a heart attack.

Career

1964–1973: Early bands

Palmer was born in 1949 in Batley.<ref name="TelegraphObit">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref> When he was only a few months old, he and his family moved to Malta,<ref name="BBC-obit">Template:Cite news</ref> where his father worked in British naval intelligence.<ref name=TelegraphObit/><ref name="Independent">Template:Cite news</ref> He was influenced as a child by blues, soul, and jazz music played on American Forces Radio<ref name="Independent"/> and by his parents' musical tastes.<ref name=TelegraphObit/> His family returned to the UK when he was 12.<ref name="Medium">Template:Cite web</ref>

In his teens,<ref name="Independent"/> Palmer moved to Scarborough.<ref name="BBC2003" /> He joined his first band, the Mandrakes, at the age of 15<ref name=TelegraphObit/> while still at Scarborough High School for Boys. He left school the next year, after obtaining six O-levels<ref>Template:Cite ODNB</ref> and briefly studied art at Scarborough School of Art & Design, before landing a job at the Scarborough Evening News. He was reportedly fired after police found "the stub of a cannabis joint in a raid on his bedsit".<ref name="Medium" />

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".<ref name="The Great Rock Discography">Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name="BBC2003" />

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.<ref name="The Great Rock Discography" /><ref name="NME Rock 'N' Roll Years">Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

1974–1978: Early solo career

Island Records signed Palmer to a solo deal in 1974.<ref name="Rockopedia" /> His first solo album, Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley, recorded in 1974 in New Orleans 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.<ref name="The Great Rock Discography" /> Unsuccessful in the UK, both the album and single reached the top 100 in the US.<ref name="The Great Rock Discography" /> 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.

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).<ref name="The Great Rock Discography" /> He toured with Little Feat to promote the reggae and rock infused album.<ref name="The Great Rock Discography" /><ref name="Rockopedia" /> With the failure of follow-up album Some People Can Do What They Like, Palmer decided to move to Nassau, Bahamas directly across the street from Compass Point Studios.<ref name="The Great Rock Discography" />

In 1978, he released Double Fun, a collection of Caribbean-influenced rock, including a cover of the Kinks' "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" which featured Philly Sound bassist Bob Babbitt.<ref name="The Great Rock Discography" /> 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.<ref name="The Great Rock Discography" />

1979–1984: Growing mainstream success

Palmer's next album was an artistic departure, concentrating on pure rock.<ref name="The Great Rock Discography" /> 1979's Secrets produced his second top 20 single with Moon Martin's "Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor)".<ref name="The Great Rock Discography" /> 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".<ref name="The Great Rock Discography" /> 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.<ref name="The Great Rock Discography" /> Going into the 1980s, Palmer's increasing commercial success as a performer fuelled his work as a producer, including on Jamaican ska legend Desmond Dekker's 1981 album Compass Point. In 1984, he helped Island label-mate John Martyn in the production of his album Sapphire.

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.<ref name="The Great Rock Discography" /> On 31 May 1983, Palmer's concert at the Hammersmith Palais was recorded and broadcast on BBC Radio 1.<ref>New Robert Palimer Live BBC Concert CD Your Way To Music. Retrieved 19 April 2012</ref> On 23 July 1983, he performed at Duran Duran's charity concert at Aston Villa football ground striking up friendships with members of Duran Duran which later spawned the supergroup the Power Station.

1985–1989: The Power Station and MTV success

When Duran Duran went on hiatus, guitarist Andy Taylor and bassist John Taylor joined former Chic drummer Tony Thompson and Palmer to form the Power Station.<ref name="Rockopedia" /> Their album The Power Station, recorded mainly at the New York recording studio after which the band was named, with overdubs and mixing at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, reached the top 20 in the UK and the top 10 in the US. It spawned two hit singles with "Some Like It Hot" (US number 6) and a cover of the T. Rex song "Get It On (Bang a Gong)", which peaked one position higher than the original at US number nine. Palmer performed live with the band only once that year, on Saturday Night Live. The band toured and played Live Aid, with singer Michael Des Barres after Palmer bowed out at the last moment to go back into the recording studio and further his solo career.

Some critics described Palmer's abandonment of the tour as being unprofessional. In Number One magazine, he countered the claims that he joined the band for money: "Firstly, I didn't need the money and, secondly the cash was a long time coming. It wasn't exactly an experience that set me up for retirement."<ref name= one2>Template:Cite magazine</ref> He also was accused of ripping off the Power Station sound for his own records. He responded, "Listen, I gave the Power Station that sound. They took it from me, not the other way around."<ref name=one2 />

Riptide and move to EMI

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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> 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.<ref name="The Great Rock Discography" /> Donovan also directed videos for the hits "Simply Irresistible" and "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On". All three videos contain similar elements, with women in heavy makeup and with near identical clothes and appearances.<ref name="British Hit Singles & Albums" /> In September 1986, Palmer performed "Addicted to Love" at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles.<ref>1986 MTV Video Music Awards MTV.com. Retrieved 5 December 2011</ref> 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.<ref name="BritAwards" />

Another single from Riptide, his cover of Cherrelle's "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On", also performed well (US number two, UK number nine).<ref name="The Great Rock Discography" /> Another song, "Trick Bag", was written by one of his major influences, New Orleans R&B artist Earl King.

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.<ref name="Rockopedia" /> Producing Heavy Nova in 1988, Palmer 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 dancers in heavy makeup. The song reached number two 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.<ref name="The Great Rock Discography" /> In 1989, he won a second Grammy for "Simply Irresistible",<ref name="NME Rock 'N' Roll Years 2">Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name="BritAwards" /> Rolling Stone magazine voted Palmer the best-dressed rock star for 1990.Template:Citation needed

1990s: Continued success

Palmer expanded his range 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.<ref name="Rockopedia" /><ref name="The Great Rock Discography" />

In 1994, Palmer released Honey to mixed reviews. While the album failed to produce any hit singles in the US, the album had three modest hit singles in the UK, "Girl U Want", "Know by Now", and "You Blow Me Away".<ref name="The Great Rock Discography" /> In 1995 he released a greatest hits album, which reached number 4 in the UK.<ref name="BBC2003" /> Also in 1995 he reunited with other members of the 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 1997, Palmer performed with Rod Stewart at Wembley.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore Archived at GhostarchiveTemplate:Cbignore and the Wayback MachineTemplate:Cbignore</ref>

Personal life

Palmer met Susan 'Sue' Eileen Thatcher, his future wife, at Slough railway station, in 1969, attracted by her style (silver-coloured boots and matching mini-dress) and by the science-fiction book she was reading.<ref name="Independent"/> They married on his 21st birthday. They had two children.<Ref>Template:Cite ODNB</Ref> 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 moved to Lugano, Switzerland. The couple divorced in 1993.<ref name=TelegraphObit/>

While he had not lived in Yorkshire for several decades, in the last interview he gave on 24 September 2003, Palmer said that the region, and his father, had given him "a healthy work ethic, and a straight-forwardness".<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>

Death

A heavy smoker, Palmer died from a heart attack in a Paris hotel room on 26 September 2003 at age 54. Palmer was in Paris after having recorded a television appearance in London for My Kinda People, a Yorkshire TV retrospective. His long-term partner and musical colleague, Mary Ambrose, had joined him in Paris for a planned two-day break from the television studio.<ref name="BBC2003">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Among those who paid tribute were Duran Duran, saying, "He was a very dear friend and a great artist. This is a tragic loss to the British music industry."<ref name="BBC2003" /> A memorial service was held in Lugano.<ref>Template:Cite web</Ref>

Awards and nominations

Award	Year	Nominee(s)	Category	Result	Template:Abbr
ASCAP Pop Music Awards	1986	"Addicted to Love"	Most Performed Songs	Template:Won	<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
	1990	"Simply Irresistible"		Template:Won	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Grammy Awards	1980	"Bad Case of Loving You"	Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male	Template:Nom	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	1987	"Addicted to Love"	Song of the Year	Template:Nom
			Record of the Year	Template:Nom
			Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male	Template:Won
	1989	"Simply Irresistible"		Template:Won
MTV Video Music Awards	1986	"Addicted to Love"	Video of the Year	Template:Nom	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
			Best Male Video	Template:Won
			Best Stage Performance in a Video	Template:Nom
			Best Overall Performance	Template:Nom
			Viewer's Choice	Template:Nom
	1987	"I Didn't Mean to Turn You On"	Best Male Video	Template:Nom
Pollstar Concert Industry Awards	1987	Tour	Small Hall Tour of the Year	Template:Won	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Discography

Template:Main Studio albums

• Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley (1974)
• Pressure Drop (1975)
• Some People Can Do What They Like (1976)
• Double Fun (1978)
• Secrets (1979)
• Clues (1980)
• Maybe It's Live (1982) (half studio tracks, half live)
• Pride (1983)
• Riptide (1985)
• Heavy Nova (1988)
• Don't Explain (1990)
• Ridin' High (1992)
• Honey (1994)
• Rhythm & Blues (1999)
• Drive (2003)

External links

• Template:AllMusic
• Template:Discogs artist
• Template:IMDb name
• Complete discography