ROBERT ALLEN PALMER, HE WAS 'SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE'

Today, The Grandma has been listening to some music. She has chosen Robert Palmer's songs, the English singer, who died on a day like today in 2003.

Robert Allen Palmer (19 January 1949-26 September 2003) was an English musician, record producer and singer-songwriter.

He was known for his powerful, distinctive, gritty, soulful voice and sartorial elegance, and for combining soul, funk, jazz, rock, pop, reggae, and blues.

Palmer's involvement in the music industry began in the 1960s and included a spell with the band Vinegar Joe. He found success both in his solo career and with the Power Station, and had Top 10 songs in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Three of his hit singles, I Didn't Mean to Turn You On, Addicted to Love and Simply Irresistible, were accompanied by music videos directed by British fashion photographer Terence Donovan.

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 nominated by the Brit Award for Best British Male Solo Artist. He died at age 54, following a heart attack on 26 September 2003.

More information: Robert Palmer

Robert 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.

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.

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.

More information: Medium

 Trying to describe something musical
is like dancing to architecture, it's really difficult.

Robert Palmer