From July 1960, with the single A fool in love, to the version of What's Love Got To Do With It with Kygo, in 2020, Tina Turner's career is as formidable as it is impressive. Few artists have had such validity and success over decades.
From that enormous flow of songs, goes a selection of ten songs, as arbitrary and subjective and capricious as any playlist. But no less representative of the voice and style of one of the greatest in history.
Tina Turner live at Madison Square Garden in 1985. He died on Wednesday, May 24, at the age of 83. Photo: AP
1) What's Love Got To Do With It
He left on May 1, 1984, probably without knowing that this was Labor Day. But it served to give him work for decades: it was an immediate worldwide success and one of the pillars of the album Private dancer.
Composed by Graham Lyle and Terry Britten, it was unusually rejected by Donna Summer, Cliff Richard and Phyllis Hyman. It spent three weeks at the top of the Billboard chart and the lyrics fit Tina perfectly.
2) Nutbush City Limits
A self-referential theme, one of the few with his participation in the authorship, and dedicated to the city where he grew up. The funk sound and guitars relate it to the English glam rock of the time. Then she made a new version in the '90s, with less vitality.
3) Proud Mary
The original song was a hit by Creedence Clearwater Revival, but this version of Tina (with Ike) is for many the definitive, even superior to the first.
It is great the spoken introduction of the singer, who preannounces "Let's grab the beginning of the song and make it soft, but then end up very rough".
4) River Deep – Mountain High
It came out in March 1966, as Ike & Tina Turner, and was one of the jewels of the production of Phil Spector, the King Midas of the time. It was not an immediate success and Spector himself retired from the industry for two years.
Over time, it became one of the great classics of the decade. Legend has it that Brian Wilson went to the session and gave mute, marveling at the sound they had achieved.
5) Private Dancer
The title track of his historic 1984 album. It was written by Mark Knopfler himself, of Dire Straits, which the most meticulous can relate to the nostalgic touch of Romeo and Juliet or Your Latest Trick.
It was a worldwide success and today it is a true classic.
6) Acid Queen
Tina's participation in the film Tommy, based on the rock opera by The Who, is simply anthological. It surpasses the original version and leaves it small. A lesson in interpretation, strength and energy.
7) Let's Stay Together
The great theme of his comeback, the song that made possible everything that came after. It is a cover of an old Al Green hit, with a sound of synthesizers very of the time (1983).
8) We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)
From the soundtrack of the second film in the Mad Max saga, with Mel Gibson, where Tina herself had a brilliant appearance.
The lyrics are a direct reference to the plot of the film and don't make much sense on their own, but it was equally chanted by entire stadiums during tour after tour, thanks to her masterful voice.
9) The Best
It was composed by Mike Chapman and Holly Knight, who first offered it to Paul Young, who scrapped it. Then Bonnie Tyler recorded it but nothing happened. And when Tina sang it, it became one of the great moments of her concerts. Another classic.
10) Ball of Confusion
For historians, this song was really the one that marked a hinge in his career, because it made possible the recording of Let's get together and the success of Private dancer. A song full of synthesizers, new-wave sound, with guitars of the post-punk hero John McGeoch and winds of the British Beggar and Co, to all funk.
MFB
See also