Robert Palmer Dies

Singer enjoyed chart-topping success in the Eighties

Robert Palmer died today of a heart attack in Paris. The fashion-savvy singer, who enjoyed chart-topping popularity in the Eighties, was fifty-four.

Though Palmer would have his greatest success in 1986 with the Number One single "Addicted to Love" and the almost equally successful "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On" and "Simply Irrestible" (both reached Number Two), his solo career stretched back to the early Seventies and he was singing with the Alan Bown Set and Dada (later Vinegar Joe) in the late Sixties. When Vinegar Joe split in 1972, Palmer began to record as a solo artist.

Born in Batley, England, on January 19, 1949, Palmer grew up on the island of Malta, before returning to Britain as a teen, where his soul-tinged voice fronted a few unprofessional bands before he fell in with the Alan Bown Set.

Palmer found reliable success with a string of R&B-tinged solo albums, starting with his debut, Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley in 1974. He charted the single "Every Kinda People" (from 1978's Double Fun) in 1978, followed by "Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor)" in 1979, which helped make his fifth album, 1979's Secrets, his first to chart in the U.S., at Number Nineteen. Three more records would be released, but none matched Secret's success until 1986's Riptide.

Style never trailed too terribly behind substance with Palmer. His trademark was a well-tailored suit and a clean-cut visage, a tip to the R&B and jazz legends who preceded him (he cited Nat King Cole as an early influence). While the dapper look might have been out of place during the Seventies -- dominated at times by flannel, leather and moustaches -- Palmer's look, which remained largely static for almost three decades, was perfectly poised for Eighties success.

In 1985, Palmer would team with Duran Duran's Andy Taylor and John Taylor and Chic's Tony Thompson to form the Power Station. The group waxed a trio of hits -- "Some Like It Hot," "Communication" and the T. Rex cover "Get It On" -- from its self-titled debut, a Number Six hit. The supergroup wouldn't reconvene for eleven years, but the time spent with the video-savvy Duran Duran members rubbed off on Palmer.

His next album, 1986's Riptide sold more than 2 million copies behind a pair of smash singles: "Addicted to Love" (which reached Number One) and "Didn't Mean to Turn You On" (Number Two). Equally as important as Riptide's big, Eighties production -- Power Station-inspired with louder guitars and processed percussion -- were its iconic videos, which featured the suit-clad Palmer backed by an identically dressed mannequin-esque bevy of expressionless female drones.

Palmer got a bit eclectic on his next album, 1988's Heavy Nova, and not-surprisingly the biggest hit came in the form of "Simply Irresistible" (Number Two), the song that most sounded like a Riptide cut. Palmer still scratched the deeper regions of the charts with singles like "You're Amazing" and "Mercy Mercy Me" in the early Nineties and in 1996 he reconvened the Power Station. By the end of the decade, Palmer made his return to soul, recording the aptly titled Rhythm and Blues in 1999. In May, Palmer released his first album in four years, Drive, which put his stamp on blues songs from sources including Keb' Mo', ZZ Top, and Lieber and Stoller. Palmer spent much of this year promoting the album, of which he said, "it's the first record I've done which I play for my own pleasure."

"I'm not concerned that my stuff isn't extreme," Palmer once told Rolling Stone. "I don't want to be heavy. I can't think of another attitude to have toward an audience than a hopeful and a positive one. And if that includes such unfashionable things as sentimentality, well, I can afford it."

ANDREW DANSBY
(September 26, 2003)