It's so interesting as YouTube became more and more popular, I wanted to scour Tina's years with Ike and also her pre-Private Dancer solo career, and YouTube has a whole host of them that you can spend several hours marveling at the dynamic live performances. For starters, here's a performance the Ike and Tina Turner revue did for Italian network RAI TV where they have this revue instrumental intro featuring Tina Turner and the Ikettes (the backup singers/dancers) dancing like a uurricane of whirling dervishes with their intricate and extremely energetic choreography before seguing into a hot (but shortened) version of their cover of the Sly & The Family Stone's "I Want to Take You Higher". Even if Tina had a slight miscue that she's not supposed to sing the second verse of the song for this TV appearance, it's still an awe-inspiring performance and hence this is what I would like to highlight.
Post her divorce from Ike, Tina had to perform on the cabaret circuit to make ends meet. This is a Tina sporting sequined risqué but glamorous costumes designed by Bob Mackie and covering a mix of old and trendy-at-the-time songs, just like her medley of Peggy Lee's 1958 classic "Fever" and the Trammps' 1976 smash "Disco Inferno" below from a 1979 concert.
There are numerous other performances to marvel, but I'd like to highlight four of my favorites.
First, Tina has been a guest on several variety shows, and among them is with Cher, first with the Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, then Cher's eponymously titled solo variety show, and then when Sonny & Cher professionally teamed up for a season post-divorce. Amongst those appearances, I enjoyed their cover of Shirley & Company's 1975 funky hit "Shame, Shame, Shame", on the eponymous Cher variety series.
Though for many people now, they would say the biggest highlight of 1985's Live Aid was Queen's epic 21-minute set. But if one reads the media coverage of the event, much ink has been focused on Tina's duet performance with Mick Jagger, where they performed a medley of The Jacksons' 1984 hit "State of Shock"*1 and The Rolling Stones' 1974 hit "It's Only Rock N' Roll (But I Like It)", delivering some steam and both being at the top of their game. I don't mind that as the years wore on, this performance is now considered a mere runner-up behind Queen in terms of Live Aid highlights.
*1 Mick was a featured but uncredited vocalist on that song. Interestingly, Queen's Freddie Mercury was supposed to be the duet partner for that song but he legendarily walked away because he's irritated with Michael Jackson's antics, most especially when he trotted out his menagerie of pets like Bubbles the chimp..
Of course there are so many videotaped performances of "Proud Mary" to cherish over the years, but my favorite performance is the all-star Divas Live performance in 1999, when Tina performed it with Elton John*2 and a surprise appearance from Cher. A stellar song befitting such superstar wattage.
*2 Tina was supposed to do a joint tour with Elton, but after that performance that tour fell through as Tina clashed with Elton over Elton's improvisory piano-playing style.
Finally, I like to talke about Tina's movie appearance in the 1975 film Tommy playing the role and singing the song "Acid Queen"*3, This version of the song is hard-driving and grand with a dash of funk that I'm surprised that the original version by The Who in their concept album was sedate and subdued in contrast, and hence this is another song that Tina has eventually made her own. The movie sequence ia trippy visual delight and I enjoyed the extended version from the film. And Tina was suitably deranged in her role, especially when her face twitches in some closeup scene. Considering Tina, by all accounts, was clean-living and the only noted incident when she ingested drugs was when she attempted suicide back in 1968, how she was able to look dementedly in a state of addiction could probably be attributed to her observations on how her husband Ike was behaving as he's a well-documented addict.
*3 She released a solo album of the same name later in the same year as the film's release, but instead of using the version as played in the movie, she re-recorded it with an arrangement leaning towards disco/R&B. It's a strong version that is a worthwhile listen, though I still prefer the movie version.
I would like to share my favorite songs from Tina, including her years with Ike. It's hard to whittle down the list, but I think 18 is what I would consider essential listening. However before I do the countdown, I have one special mention:
"What You Get is What You See" (1987). This country-tinged US Top 20 hit is likeable, but I just want to highlight this because of the music video, featuring hot muscular beefcake men parading around as Tina sings on an open-air stage.
18. "When the Heartache is Over" (1999). From her last studio album, Twenty Four Seven, here's Tina trying to catch some whiffs of Cher's stellar comeback with "Believe", as this track is squarely in 1990s dance-pop, and she's terrific dong it. It didn't chart in the US, but it became a UK Top 10 hit and made the Top 30 in most other European markets. For me it deserved to chart better than it did.
17. "One of the Living" (1985). What I find very striking about the music video was Tina wielding a guitar and indeed looking like a rock goddess. This is of course from the Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome soundtrack and I just enjoyed the exotic atmospheric production and Tina's slinky vocals in the verses--a precursor to the vocal style she employed 10 years later for another movie theme song...
16. "It's Only Love" (1985) [with Bryan Adams]. Bryan is actually the primary artist on this song, from his smash 1984 album Reckless. It's a simple rock duet that was elevated by the stellar vocals of the two artists, most especially Tina's gale force passionate delivery. Tina had a bunch of other notable duets with David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, Sting, and Eros Ramazotti, amongst others, but this remains my favorite duet of them all.
15. "We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome" (1985). The big hit single from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, Tina was undeniably commanding with a dynamic range going from soft in the opening verses before unleashing her trademark power as the chorus comes in.
14. "Whatever You Want" (1996). This is the first single from her Wildest Dreams album, and it's a powerful electronica-infused tour-de-force. It only peaked in the Top 30 in most European charts (and is a non-starter in the US) but I feel it deserved better and be a bigger hit.
13. "Goldeneye" (1995). Tina channels a fusion of Eartha Kitt and Shirley Bassey in this James Bond theme, and is now regarded as one of the more memorable theme songs from that franchise. I've showcased the music video in the previous section of this essay, so I'll highlight a live version at her farewell 2008-2009 tour.
12. "Back Where You Started" (1986). For me, this is the best track from her Break Every Rule album, and Tina won a Grammy for best female rock vocal performance for this track. So it's quite shocking that this stunning rocker (which was co-written by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance) was only serviced to rock radio stations in America and was not released as a single in most countries except for a nominal chart showing in Bryan's home country of Canada, where it peaked at a mediocre No. 85. For me this is an underrated gem that also deserved to be a bigger hit than how it fared.
11. "I Can't Stand the Rain" (1984). This cover of Ann Peebles' 1973 classic*4 for me improved on the original as the distinctive rhythmic intro got a slick sheen with the use of modern synthesizers, plus there is a slightly grander, uptempo arrangement and Tina's gritty vocals gave the lovelorn sentiments of this song a lot more drama. It's another instance of Tina stealing the song from its original artist and making it her own. As such, it became a hit in continental Europe.
*4 Ann Peebles' original made the US Top 40 peaking at No. 38, but interestingly the sped up discofied version by Eruption in 1978 became a bigger hit, peaking at No. 18 in America and becoming a huge Top 10 hit all throughout Europe, including the UK and making No. 1 in Australia.
10. "The Best" (1989). This was originally sung by Bonnie Tyler in 1988 but it has become one of Tina's undeniably signature songs. I can imagine Tina had Erwin Bach on her mind when she sings this song as she delivered so much passion to this song about undying devotion to a wonderful person. It's also worth checking out her 1992 duet version of this song with Australian rocker Jimmy Barnes, which of course resulted in this becoming an Australian smash, and the mellow reworking by Noah Reid (who played Patrick Brewer, David Rose [Daniel Levy]'s eventual husband) on Schitt's Creek.
9. "I Want to Take You Higher" (1970). On top of what I mentioned earlier in this essay, I have to note that Sly & the Family Stone's original went top 40 and peaked at No. 38, and interestingly, Ike and Tina's version outcharted and outperformed the original by not only peaking at No. 34, but generating enough chart legs and longevity to figure in the year-end charts for that year, a rare feat for a song that peaked that low in that era.
8. "Private Dancer" (1985). This song was written by Dire Straits' guitarist and frontman Mark Knopfler, probably initially intended for that band's soon-to-be-iconic Brothers in Arms album, but decided to offer it to another artist as it may need the female perspective to make the song work. And the way Tina delivered this number by embodying the life of a taxi dancer (and possibly even a bit more sordid than that) while still evoking class is a vocal masterclass.
7. "Let's Stay Together" (1983). Tina's version was the first time I heard of this song, and I enjoyed Tina's passionate vocal in this number, and am hooked by the synth flourishes. I only heard of Al Green's 1971 original when I bought the Pulp Fiction soundtrack in 1994. I can understand why some people would consider the original superior to Tina's version, and I'm starting to agree with them as the years wear on, but I still enjoy Tina's version immensely. Like most of the Private Dancer singles, I recommend people listen to the full album version instead of the truncated single versions.
6. "What's Love Got to Do With It?" (1984). Even if Tina disliked this song initially and was initially offered to British pop quartet (and 1981 Eurovision champions) Bucks Fizz, Tina's maturity, grit, soulfulness and experience helped sell this pop song and hence it became one of her iconic signature songs highly regarded by fans all over.
5. "Nutbush City Limits" (1973). Though I first heard this song from the Ann-Margret special*5, I only knew of this song first via the 1991 house version on the Simply the Best compilation. At first when I listened to the honky-tonk arrangement I found it a bit off-putting, but I'm starting to love and appreciate it as time wore on. This is the most prominent song that Tina herself wrote, and of course Tina wrote from what she knew and that is of course scenes from her hometown.
*5 They were promoting the Tommy movie at the time. Ann-Margret actually got nominated for an Oscar for her role in the film as Tommy's mother.
4. "I Don't Wanna Fight" (1993). What I love about this pop ballad is the weathered maturity and experience that Tina brought to this song, and how it definitely resonated with how her life had been, especially with those years with Ike as depicted in that movie where this was included on the soundtrack. But I would highly recommend going for the 6-minute album version, especially as I found the closing moments of the song resonant with her intensely repeated singing "let it go!", and you have that palpable feeling she's exorcising those demons from her past (I think the entire soundtrack album was actually an exorcism to finally get rid of Ike from her system and reclaim her legacy).
3. "River Deep, Mountain High" (1966). Though it's credited as an "Ike and Tina Turner" record, this is the first solo effort of Tina as producer Phil Spector banned Ike from getting involved with the recording. This "Wall of Sound" epic legendarily was a flop in the US but a big hit throughout Europe and is now regarded as a classic record.
2. "Proud Mary" (1971). Ike and Tina put such a stamp to this song that many people forgot that this was originally written by John Fogerty and performed by his band, Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) in 1968, their first Top 10 hit (and the first of their five No. 2 US Billboard chart smashes). CCR's original is a steady, chugging number, but how Ike and Tina did it was to create a more dramatic dynamism, starting the song slow with a spoken line about "never, ever, do anything nice and easy" and then give a dramatic rave up and frenzied arrangement, and that yielded the couple's biggest hit (and only Top 10 single) ever. The song became so ingrained in the public's psyche as Tina's song that no doubt it has to be perennially on any setlist of a Tina Turner concert. What I noticed though is that although the original studio recording captured the dynamic contrast and energy, such dynamism is best experienced when this is performed live, and of course there are a whole host of performances, both from the Revue and Tina solo (and of course occasionally with Cher) to relish and enjoy. If you want a great studio version, I would recommend Tina's 1993 re-recording for the What's Love Got to Do With It soundtrack.
1. "Better Be Good to Me" (1984). I resonated a lot with Tina's songs from the Private Dancer album, but the song I resonated with the most is this song, her follow-up to her No. 1 mega-smash "What's Love Got to Do With It?" Let's just say I have a very angsty high school life dealing with adversaries of many kinds and when I hear this song, I wanted to be like Tina and confront my adversaries to treat me better. I fantasize being Tina on that stage in that video confronting the leading man played by The Fixx frontman Cy Curnin and imagining my own adversaries in Cy's place. I know this might be a surprising No. 1 choice for most people, but I have to note that for me the best version of this song is the album version, with the soft hi-hat drum intro and the dynamic soft-to-loud production. The single version omitted the slow rhythmic intro, and for me that probably diluted the impact of the song. I suppose on a live setting it's hard to replicate the dynamic contrast of the studio version that it's not as impactful and not a highlight in her concerts.
Although this came so late after her passing I hope you the reader enjoyed this tribute to the legend that is Tina Turner. Her impact to culture is undeniable and unforgettable. Long live the Queen of Rock!
JUST ME!
JOSEPH
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