Tina Turner 'What's Love Got To Do With It'

Chart Peak: 3

YouTube

It wouldn't be quite right to say this song was the start of her solo career, but it's perhaps the start of her real solo stardom. After 'Let's Stay Together' had put her back on the map (and granted her a slot on the very first Now album of course), the follow up was a cover of the Lennon/McCartney standard 'Help!' in an odd ballad style, which only made the very bottom rung of the Top 40, and was swiftly forgotten. It was this third single from her comeback album that established her as a star in her own right, not just somebody who got lucky with a cover version. Though this isn't a cover version as would conventionally be understood, this was not Turner's own composition, but a song from jobbing songwriters which had been rejected by Cliff Richard. Bucks Fizz got as far as recording a version but were gazumped by this hit and didn't release it at the time.

It seems fair to say that it's hard to imagine either of those acts singing it now. In its finished incarnation, the song seems a perfect fit for Turner, with its deliberate pace and complex lyrical message. As much as the protagonist is dismissing the appeal of love, you can tell she's trying hard to resist it, even before she admits in the middle eight that she's "thinking of my own protection" and "it scares me to feel this way". To sound convincing in that role means projecting a combination of strength and vulnerability that's none too easy to carry off, but she manages it superbly here - the fact that this might in some way fit her personal history is at best incidental. The production works surprisingly well too, even though obviously of its time now (synthesised harmonica never really caught on) because it sounds as if it knows its place, supporting the singer rather than trying to hit you over the head itself. I don't think I understood all this at the time, but I liked the track a lot then, even trying to learn some of the words; and at the time I had no idea she had any previous career at all, let alone one that stretched into previous decades. In fact, at the age of 44 she was at the time the oldest woman to top the US singles chart, though over here she fought hard in the crowded charts of summer 1984 and had to settle for Number 3, which means this was ultimately outcharted by Warren G's cover version. Writers Britten and Lyle got a lot of repeat business from Turner, most of which proved to be decidedly bland, but at least for these four minutes it worked.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 4, 6, 16, 17, 18, 21, 25, 26, 32, 34, 44
Available on: Simply The Best

Tina Turner 'We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)'

Chart Peak: 3

YouTube

For one of the stars of a film to sing the theme music must be a rare occurence, but that's what Tina Turner has done. This single made Number 3 in August and now she stars in the Mad Max film itself.

What are they talking about? It's not rare at all, particularly not with stars who are better known as singers than actors in the first place. I've never actually seen any of the Mad Max films, I was way too young to be more than vaguely aware of them at the time, but this song was hard to avoid, coming out when Turner was at the peak of her UK success (it remains jointly her highest-peaking single here). Although it was written by her regular writers of the time, Britten and Lyle, it has a slightly different mood from a lot of her work, with Turner herself atypically subdued on the vocal. That actually suits the weary, downtrodden tone of the song, which in turn presumably fits the film itself. Even the children's choir is surprisingly tolerable. According to Wikipedia one of them later grew up to become England Rugby Union captain Lawrence Dallaglio, which is amusing if true.
Strangely, she struggled to follow up this success in Britain for most of the rest of the decade, which is why her frequent appearances on early Now! albums didn't continue for a while after this. It took a bit of a rethink to get her chart career back on track.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 4, 16, 17, 18, 21, 25, 26, 32, 34, 44
Available on: American Anthems II

Bryan Adams and Tina Turner 'It's Only Love'

Chart Peak: 29

YouTube

Two of 1985's hitmakers have teamed up for one of the most explosive duets ever recorded.

Explosive? Well I guess you could say it bombed chartwise... Actually, that's slightly unfair. Though not a major hit, it did chart higher than 'Summer Of 69', which is probably the most famous song from Adams' breakthrough album Reckless. Believe it or not, that TotP playout was the longest clip from the studio track I could find on any video site, so I had to go back to the vinyl to hear the song. Well, try to hear the song at least - there isn't really much of one there. Adams and Turner do their best to make a big noise but they haven't really got anything much to work with and it can only be a tribute to their respective fanbases that they even got this into the Top 30.

Bryan Adams also appears on: Now 34, 43, 45 (with Chicane)
Tina Turner also appears on: 1, 4, 16, 17, 18, 21, 25, 26, 32, 34, 44
Available on: Reckless

Tina Turner 'Disco Inferno'

Chart Peak: 12

YouTube

'Disco Inferno', a cover of the Trammps' 1977 hit, made No. 12 for Tina in late August '93 as the follow-up to 'I Don't Wanna Fight'.

I thought it had got a bit quiet on the Tina Turner front lately. This cover of the Trammps song which was inspired by one film and became a hit after appearing in another had been a part of her live act for years but was finally recorded as part of the soundtrack to the biopic What's Love Got To Do With It. I've never seen that in full, although apparently both Turners disputed its accuracy - despite Tina's evident involvement with the project. Either way, this starts Side Two of the tape sounding like a cheap and sterile karaoke backing track. Once Turner herself shows up, things definitely step up a gear: even without a live audience she's a pro and since she must have known the song backwards by now she puts in a strong and committed performance. But it's still not quite enough to remove the sense that this is a box-ticking exercise.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 4, 6, 16, 17, 18, 21, 25, 32, 34, 44
Available on: What's Love Got To Do With It

Tina Turner 'The Best'

Chart Peak: 5

YouTube

Tina's biggest British single hit since 'We Don't Need Another Hero' in 1985, 'The Best' was No. 5 for 2 weeks in late September 1989.

Yeah, it's not really called 'Simply The Best', people just think it is. Another thing people might not know about this song is that Bonnie Tyler peaked at 95 with the original of it in early 1988. Compared to that, Tina's version is at least a bit more assured, leaving Tyler's effort sounding a bit like a demo.

I must say, though, that like 'I Want That Man' this track has now lost any attraction it ever had for me, now sounding lost in a pile of cliched lyrics, clattering excess production and Edgar Winter's naff sax solo. The only hint of any kind of spontaneity is that yelp before the last chorus, which sounds so out of place that the first time I heard this on the radio, I thought it was the DJ. Yes, I used to listen to the sort of radio station where they would do that, and I'm not proud of it. I'm sure the people who made this record aren't too proud that it's developed an association with Northern Irish (and Scottish) sectarianism, which led to it recharting last year.

Also appearing on: 1, 4, 6, 17, 18, 21, 25, 26, 32 34, 44
Available on: I Grew Up In The 80s

Tina Turner 'Goldeneye'

Chart Peak: 10

YouTube

'Goldeneye', written by U2's Bono & The Edge, is the theme song from the new James Bond film... The single is due for release on 6th November and is Tina's first for 2 years.

Sometimes there are really subtle links between consecutive tracks on these albums. Sometimes they're not so subtle; yes, this is another song written by (some of) U2 for a film. And in this case, clearly written for the purpose since it has the film title in the lyric... well, unless Brian Eno had asked them to write a load of songs about ducks, which I suppose is not impossible.

It's actually a much more cinematic-sounding record than 'Hold Me, Thrill Me...' possibly thanks to the production of Nellee Hooper: he'd never done a film score before and he's only done one of them since but I suppose his work on stuff like Massive Attack had that sort of mood to it. It's not so clear what Bono and Edge's "Executive Producer" credit amounts to. Turner's no stranger to movie themes and she knows exactly how to pitch this for maximum effect, even if the lyrics don't totally make sense. I can't actually recall whether I've seen the film or not, because I only really remember James Bond films by the cars, but I don't know whether it'd help. Perhaps it didn't need to though, as this was a fairly successful relaunch of her career.

Incidentally, I think Tina's the most featured solo artist on this blog so far.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 4, 6, 16, 17, 18, 21, 25, 26, 34, 44
Available on: Tina!

Tina Turner 'Private Dancer'

Chart Peak: 26

YouTube

And another accidental connection here; 20 years later Kane Gang singer Martin Brammer co-wrote Tina's last hit to date, 'Open Arms'. This however comes from the more famous pen of Mark Knopfler, who supposedly realised at a rather late stage that this song didn't suit a male vocal and dropped it from the Love Over Gold album. In the spirit of waste not, want not, it went on to become the title track of the comeback album I referred to before as a big in-car favourite during my formative years, and this song still reminds me of motorways.

Of course, as a child I didn't grasp the meaning of the lyric. In fact, I think I even romanticised it a little by mishearing "...keeping your eyes on the wall" as "...keeping your eyes on The One", but nonetheless something in the melody and atmosphere of the track caught my attention, and it's a song I've always remembered. Now I do know what's going on, it's all the more difficult to imagine Dire Straits ever releasing this (apparently they are still on the backing track, although Jeff Beck takes over the lead guitar). It's Turner's vocal that makes it work, sounding appropriately weary but not too dark to overpower it; it seems as if the protagonist is a little in denial about the true sadness of her position.

Needless to say, this single version is heavily edited from the seven-minute album track, but most of what gets cut seems to be sax solo, which I don't consider a great loss. According to the internet, a further edit had to be made for Top Of The Pops to remove the advertising slogan "American Express will do nicely thank you". The past is a foreign country indeed.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 6, 16, 17, 18, 21, 25, 26, 32, 34, 44
Available on: All The Best

Tina Turner 'I Don't Wanna Lose You'

Chart Peak: 8

YouTube

From the Foreign Affair album which I remember as an in-car fixture around this time. I think this is also the time in her career when she managed two consecutive Top 10 singles.

Another thing that distinguishes this from most Top 10 hits is that the protagonist implicitly admits in the first line of lyric to be being a woman of a certain age. Admittedly, Turner didn't write this herself (it's by Albert Hammond and the Lyle of Gallagher and Lyle) but it's notable that she was even prepared to sing it. More notable than the song itself, really, which it perfectly serviceable but not very exciting. Certainly a lot less naff than 'The Best' though.

It'll probably ruin it if I mention the bit where I used to sing along "Your dog is responsive," though. So maybe I won't.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 4, 6, 10, 16, 18, 21, 25, 26, 32, 44
Available on: Foreign Affair

Tina Turner 'On Silent Wings'

Chart Peak: 13

YouTube

Ah yes, Tina Turner. It felt a bit weird doing Now 10 without her...

'On Silent Wings' was the third of six singles from the album Wildest Dreams, although the version that became the hit is edited down from the six-minute album cut, apparently with some extra overdubs. Even so, it's not what you'd call a concentrated burst of nervous energy.

It's obviously supposed to be a sort of dry-eyed look at the failure of a relationship. Not the panicked reaction, but a sort of resigned recognition that that's how life goes; "You never see it coming, you just go separate ways..." It's perhaps fitting for a veteran performer like Turner, but the trouble with this sort of approach is that it's inherently undramatic, so you have to come up with something pretty special to make it work. The Beatles managed it on 'For No One', but few others seem to have got there. This one ends up feeling slightly aimless, (and that sense is only exacerbated by the video which eventually resorts to setting off fireworks). It goes downhill in the final minute with the sudden arrival of Sting, who makes his first appearance on this blog, who turns up singing along as if there were some extra lyrics left over that Turner forgot to say. Needless to say, they're a bit of a mistmatched pairing and he sounds like a complete afterthought: there's no space in the arrangement for him so he just seems like a DJ singing over the end of the record.

It's not unpleasant by any means, and it gets some small credit for ambition, but it doesn't make a great impact.

Also appearing on: 1, 4, 6, 16, 17, 18, 21, 25, 26, 32, 44
Available on: The Platinum Collection

Tina 'When The Heartache Is Over'

Chart Peak: 10

YouTube

Even before I found out they were together here, I always imagined these two songs as somehow related: both by veteran acts, obviously, and both similar in style, both on EMI for that matter, they charted in consecutive weeks. As it turned out, they were the last big hits for each act too.

Although the singles themselves were effectively a score draw, album buyers awarded Tina (as she's billed on the sleeve of this year's releases) a convincing victory: Number 9 for Twenty Four Seven against 71 for Ross's Every Day Is A New Day. And for once I'm going to agree with them. Neither of the songs is ever going to be mistaken for a career highpoint, but 'When The Heartache Is Over' certainly has a far more memorable chorus - so much so, indeed, that the Freemasons borrowed it for their own hit 'Love On My Mind' a few years later. Perhaps as importantly, the performance is instantly identifiable as Tina Turner, which might be why she managed to sell albums off the back of it.

Incidentally, the eagle-eyed will have spotted that Tina Turner is the first act to appear on both Now 1 and Now 44. She's not the only one though.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 4, 6, 16, 17, 18, 21, 25, 26, 32, 34
Available on: Twenty Four Seven

Tina Turner 'Let's Stay Together'

Chart Peak: 6

YouTube

My Dad's always been a big Tina Turner fan (Happy New Year if you're reading this!) so I remember the Private Dancer album (where this track appeared the following year) on pretty heavy rotation in the car for my formative years.
Back then, of course, I was entirely unaware that Tina Turner had any previous career, or that she was any older than any other pop star. As a matter of fact, this was the song that relaunched her, her first ever solo hit in the UK, and one that proved that this already-established performer was happy to pick up on the prevailing trends of the day; of course the fact that she probably didn't feel too much nostalgia for her former hit-making days might have helped with that. The track was originally recorded with the BEF (ie Heaven 17) who had a sideline in recording cover versions with what were then state-of-the-art production values and guest vocalists. Although they released two albums of these, it was this one track that became the biggest-ever success from the project. Listened to in the 21st century, the monotonous, programmed backing track does sound dated, but as with their own 'Temptation' it's somewhat rescued by the excitement of the vocal performance, which is given plenty of room by the starkness of the arrangement around it. It all sounds very much of its time of course (particularly those backing vocals, which admittedly might be a joke) but then again so does Al Green's original - that one just so happens to be in a style I'm more comfortable with. Neither would have been a fraction of the record it is without the quality of the singing, that's for sure.

Also appearing on: Now 4, 6, 16, 17, 18, 21, 25, 26, 32, 34, 44
Available on: Private Dancer