| Tina
Turner, the most dynamic female soul
singer in the history of the music oozed
sexuality from every pore in a
performing career that began the moment
she stepped onstage as lead singer of
the Ike & Tina Turner Revue in the late
'50s. Her gritty and growling
performances beat down doors everywhere,
looking back to the double-barreled
attack of gospel fervor and sexual
abandon that had originally formed soul
in the early '50s. Divorced from Ike in
the mid-'70s, she recorded only
occasionally later in the decade but
resurfaced in the mid-'80s with a series
of hit singles and movie appearances;
her high-profile status was assured well
into the '90s.
Born Annie Mae Bullock near
Brownsville, TN, she began singing as a
teen, and joined Ike Turner's touring
show as an 18-year-old backup vocalist.
Just two years later, Tina was the star
of the show, the attention-grabbing
focal point for an incredibly
smooth-running soul revue headed by Ike
and his Kings of Rhythm. The couple
began hitting the charts in 1960 with "A
Fool in Love," and notched charting
singles throughout the '60s, "River
Deep-Mountain High" was cited by Phil
Spector as one of his best productions.
All expectations were filled in 1971
with "Proud Mary," a number four hit
which became the capstone of Ike &
Tina's Revue. Frustrated by Ike's
increasingly irrational behavior,
though, Tina walked out just three years
later.
She celebrated her new-found freedom
in 1975 with a role in the film version
of The Who's Tommy. Playing the Acid
Queen, she delivered an outrageous,
all-too-brief performance. Several
albums were recorded for United Artists
during the late '70s. Tina returned in
1983, first teaming with a Heaven 17
project named BEF on a remake of the
Temptations' "Ball of Confusion." Tina's
vocal offering was understandably
apocalyptic, and she gained a solo deal
with Capitol that same year. Her first
single, a cover of Al Green's "Let's
Stay Together," hit the Top 30 early in
1984. Second single "What's Love Got to
Do With It" became one of the year's
biggest hits, spending three weeks at
number one. Her album Private Dancer
included two more Top Ten singles, the
title track and "Better Be Good to Me."
With another movie role in 1985 (Mad
Max: Beyond Thunderdome), she found a
number two hit with its theme, "We Don't
Need Another Hero." Her next big hit
followed in 1986 ("Typical Male"), still
charting occasionally and selling
respectably with albums including 1989's
Foreign Affair, 1996's Wildest Dreams,
and 2000's Twenty Four Seven. |
