[2][3] Three of his hit singles, including "Addicted to Love", featured music videos directed by British fashion photographer Terence Donovan.
[12] 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.
[10] In 1970, he joined the 12-piece jazz-rock fusion band Dada, which featured singer Elkie Brooks and her husband Pete Gage.
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.
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).
[12][3] 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.
[12] 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.
[12] Catchy music videos matching the synth-pop stylings of new wave gave him much-needed exposure to a younger audience.
[12] 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.
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.
[18][19][20] 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.
[2] In September 1986, Palmer performed "Addicted to Love" at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles.
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.
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.
Palmer and the rest of the band completed the album Living in Fear (1996), and had just begun touring when Edwards died from pneumonia.
[23] Palmer met Sue, 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.
[1] While he had not lived in Yorkshire for several decades, in the last interview he gave, Palmer said that the region, and his father, had given him "a healthy work ethic, and a straight-forwardness".
[25] Palmer, an extremely heavy smoker from his teenage years, died from a heart attack in a Paris hotel room on 26 September 2003 at age 54.
[10][26] His long-term partner and musical colleague, Mary Ambrose, had joined him in Paris for a planned two-day break from the television studio.