Remembering Tina Turner (1939-2023)

Tina Turner (short bio)

Tina Turner (November 26, 1939, Brownsville, Tennessee – May 24, 2023, Küsnacht, Zurich) was one of the most legendary figures in 20th century music. Dancer, singer and songwriter, she was nicknamed The Acid Queen and The Queen of Rock & Roll.

With a brilliant career of success that spanned four decades, from the sixties to the two thousand, he always stood out for his magnetic presence on stage, his very powerful voice and his tremendous energy.

She was born Anna Mae Bullock in a small Tennessee town, Nutbush (to which she would dedicate the song Nutbush City Limit ). His parents were African-American and, on his mother’s side, he had ancestry from the indigenous peoples of North America, Cherokee and Navajo. As he recounted in his autobiography, his father was a violent man and given to drink. His mother separated from him when he was eleven years old, and together with his older sister, Ruby, they went to live with her in the city of St. Louis, in Missouri.

He soon showed his aptitude for music in the choir of the local Baptist church. After graduating from high school, she began working as a nursing assistant, while also beginning to sing in St. Louis’ African-American nightclubs. In 1958, she was discovered at the Manhattan Club by Ike Turner , who signed her to his group Kings of Rhythm . Ike was already a well-known Soul composer and performer by then. At that time, she had her first child with the saxophonist Raymond Hill, at the age of nineteen, although their relationship did not bear fruit.

Best Sheet Music download from our Library.

She would be attached to Ike , who would become her husband in 1962, vitally and professionally, for fifteen years, which saw her rise to stardom, but also constant physical abuse. At the suggestion of Juggy Murray , president of the independent R&B label Sue Records, she artistically renamed herself Tina Turner . Like Ike & Tina Turner , they had several hits in the 60s such as A fool in love , I idolize you or Tra La La La La .

In 1965, iconic producer Phil Spector saw them perform, and was fascinated by Tina’s voice. He insisted on recording a song with her. Ike , who insisted on controlling every aspect of his career, refused at first, and only accepted when Spector paid him $20,000. The result of that session was the song River Deep, Mountain High , which, although it did not obtain much commercial success at the time, would end up becoming a classic in Tina ‘s repertoire and, according to Spector , her greatest achievement.

In 1969, Ike & Tina shared a US tour with The Rolling Stones , and appeared with them in the famous documentary Gimme Shelter . Mick Jagger , Keith Richards and Tina became very good friends.

In the early ’70s, the Turner duo had their biggest commercial success with their cover of Proud Mary single , a Creedence Clearwater Revival . Likewise, Tina had a memorable appearance in the musical Tommy as “The Acid Queen.” That moment of professional splendor was accompanied by the collapse of his marriage. Ike Turner had increasingly aggressive and erratic behavior due to his cocaine addiction. Tina attempted suicide on more than one occasion.

Please, subscribe to our Library.

If you are already a subscriber, please, check our NEW SCORES’ page every month for new sheet music. THANK YOU!

Finally, after a brutal beating in a Dallas hotel in July 1976, she left him and filed for divorce. Ike initially refused to grant it, and the legal battle lasted for two years, until 1978. Tina agreed, to settle the dispute, to pay the debts that Ike had accumulated , she kept custody of the son he had had with her ex-husband, Ronald and, in addition, she adopted the two children that he had fathered with other women, Ike Jr. and Michael.

During the early 1980s, he seemed a forgotten figure, until the musical renaissance that came with the album Private Dancer 1984 , which was produced, among others, by David Bowie and Mark Knopfler , and which represented his greatest success. his career. Thanks to singles such as the title track, What’s Love Got to Do With It or Better Be Good to Me , it sold five million units. The following year, she appeared as the villain in the film Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome and sang the theme song for its soundtrack, We Don’t Need Another Hero , which also topped the charts. from all over the world.

His success continued throughout the eighties, with albums such as Break Every Rule (1986) and Foreign Affair (1988), while he went on several world concert tours. was released In 1993, the biopic Tina , where she was played by Angela Bassett, while Ike had the face of Laurence Fishburne . Both were nominated for Oscars for their roles. Among his latest hits, the main theme of the James Bond 1995 film, GoldenEye , stands out . In 1999, he released his last album, Twenty Four Seven , to say goodbye to music with a final world tour in 2000, which is remembered as one of the most massive in history.

In 2008 she came out of retirement to collaborate on the Joni Mitchell tribute album , River: The Joni Letters , performing the song Edith and the Kingpin . The album won a Grammy.

Since 1986, she was romantically linked to the German music producer, Erwin Bach . Together they lived in Los Angeles, Paris and, finally, in Switzerland, the country whose nationality they adopted after marrying in 2013.

Religiously, she was raised in the faith of the Southern Baptist Church in the United States. In the mid-70s, through a friend, she discovered Buddhism. As she recounted in her autobiography, Buddhism had a crucial importance in her professional and personal rebirth, after the traumatic end of her relationship with Ike Turner.

about her life was released In 2018, the musical Tina , which has been performed in various countries.

In her final years, she began to suffer a series of health problems, and in 2017 she underwent surgery to receive a kidney transplant (donated by her husband).

In 2023, his death was announced, after suffering from cancer for several years and suffering a stroke. “With her, the world loses a music legend and a role model,” indicated the statement from her representative who broke the news.

Tina Turner’s 10 best songs and the stories behind them

1. River Deep, Mountain High (1966)

In 1960, Tina found success with Ike and created one of pop music’s masterpieces six years later, when producer Phil Spector approached her about working with her.

Although the song was credited to the duo, Spector did not want Ike to control the work in the recording studio, so he paid him not to go.

Tina was happy to work with someone else.

He was surprised to discover that the producer had assembled an orchestra and a choir to create his famous “wall of sound.”

“She was just a girl from Tennessee who caught up with Ike and became a singer,” Tina Turner wrote in her autobiography. “I’ve never, ever seen anything like it, except in a movie.”

The song peaked at number three on the UK charts, but flopped in the US. Radio DJs said the song “wasn’t ‘black’ enough to be rhythm and blues nor white enough to be ‘pop.’”

2. Proud Mary (1971)

After this country-rock song was a hit for Credence Clearwater Revival in 1969, Ike and Tina transformed it into an explosive, epic funk ode to freedom.

Tina began her presentation with sensual messages and then exploded with her exuberant voice, in a show that impressed music fans in the United States. It reached number four on the Billboard chart and won a Grammy Award.

Beyoncé chose to perform this song when she paid tribute to Tina at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2005. Three years later, they sang it as a duet at the Grammy Awards.

https://youtu.be/hzQnPz6TpGc?feature=shared

3. Nutbush City Limits (1973)

Tina immortalized her hometown with the lyrics of this song.

The cheerful melody was a nostalgic memory of his disturbing childhood, during which he spent some time picking cotton. “You go to the country on weekdays/and have a picnic on Labor Day.”

Three years later, Tina left Ike after suffering abuse for years, risking her entire career.

4. Let’s Stay Together (1983)

Tina had to start over and rebuild herself as a solo artist. The crucial moment in that comeback, which would lead to even greater success, came when she met two members of the English electro-pop group Heaven 17.

Martyn Ware and Glenn Gregory were looking for a singer for a covers album for their British Electric Foundation project and Tina did not have a record contract.

When he entered the Abbey Road studios, there were no other musicians. “Where’s the band?” she asked, expecting a Phil Spector-style orchestra. But this time the music would be made with synthesizers.

First, they recorded Ball of Confusion The Temptations’ , then Al Green’s Let’s Stay Together , which became their first UK Top 10 hit in a decade.

5. What’s Love Got to Do With It (1984)

Turner established himself as a solo artist with this song written by Terry Britten and Graham Lyle, which had previously been offered to Cliff Richard, Donna Summer and Bucks Fizz. Tina didn’t initially like it either, as it seemed too light.

However, he agreed to record it if he could do it his way, “with strength, with gravity and pure emotion.” Her sexy and defiant performance worked, accompanied by a music video that showed her walking the streets of New York.

This song gave Turner his only number one in the United States and won a Grammy.

At 44 years old, she became the oldest woman at that time to have a single reach first place on the charts in the United States.

6. Private Dancer (1984)

This song was first recorded by Dire Straits and was written by Mark Knopfler, the band’s leader, who considered that the song could not be performed by a male voice.

Tina later said in an interview that she hadn’t realized the song was about a sex worker.

“I never had to stoop to that in my life,” he wrote in his autobiography. “But I think most of us have been in situations where we’ve had to sell ourselves, in one way or another.”

“When I gave myself to Ike, when I kept quiet to avoid an argument, when I stayed with him despite the desire to leave. That’s what I was thinking when I sang the song, the sadness of doing something you don’t want, day after day. “It’s very emotional.”

7. We Don’t Need Another Hero (1985)

It is another song written by Britten and Lyle. The theme and Tina herself appeared in the Mel Gibson film Mad Max : Beyond Thunderdome.

As a classic ’80s power ballad, the lyrics resonated with the desolation of the film’s post-apocalyptic world. Turner appeared in the video as the character Aunty Entity, who she said she connected with because she was “strong and resilient.”

“She lost so much and then went through so much to get the men in her world to respect her,” Turner said. “I identified with their struggles because I lived them.”

The song was another hit: it reached number two in the United States and won a Grammy nomination and an Ivor Novello Award.

8. The Best (1989)

It was originally written for Bonnie Tyler, but was only a minor hit for the Welsh singer in 1988.

A year later, Tina added some vocal power and new soft rock production, and made it one of her signature songs, one of the defining anthems of the decade.

The song is often mistakenly called Simply The Best , a line from its famous chorus. She has appeared in numerous advertisements over the years, including one for Pepsi with Turner herself. It was also used to promote rugby league in Australia.

9. Steamy Windows (1989)

It appeared on Turner’s 1989 album Foreign Affair. The lyrics left listeners in little doubt about what was happening in the backseat.

It was another empowering and feminist song from Turner, about taking the initiative in a sexual encounter. Music Week described it at the time as “a delightfully sassy number” with “naughty guitar runs.”

10. GoldenEye (1995)

Singing a James Bond theme is a milestone for any artist.

Following the success of What’s Love Got to Do With It , Tina’s Oscar-nominated 1993 biopic, Bond producers tapped her for Pierce Brosnan’s debut as Agent 007.

The GoldenEye theme was composed by Bono and The Edge of U2.

Tina Turner discography

Ike & Tina Turner discography

List of songs written by Tina Turner

List of awards and nominations received by Tina Turner

Browse in the Library: