Tina Turner
By All Music Guide
By All Music Guide
Born Annie Mae Bullock near Brownsville, TN, she began singing as a teen, and joined Ike Turners 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, though the disappointing position of River Deep-Mountain High -- cited by Phil Spector as one of his best productions -- was very hard to take. All expectations were filled in 1971 with Proud Mary, a number four hit which became the capstone of Ike & Tinas Revue. Frustrated by Ikes 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 Whos Tommy. Playing the Acid Queen, she delivered an outrageous, all-too-brief performance in an otherwise forgettable mistake of a movie. Several albums were recorded for United Artists during the late 70s, but she appeared to be washed up by the turn of the decade. Surprisingly, Tina returned in 1983, first teaming with a Heaven 17 project named BEF on a remake of the Temptations Ball of Confusion. Tinas vocal offering was understandably apocalyptic, and she gained a solo deal with Capitol that same year. Her first single, a cover of Al Greens Lets Stay Together, hit the Top 30 early in 1984. Second single Whats Love Got to Do With It became one of the years 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 Dont Need Another Hero. Her next big hit followed in 1986 (Typical Male), after which Tina began to decline, still charting occasionally and selling respectably with albums including 1989s Foreign Affair, 1996s Wildest Dreams, and 2000s Twenty Four Seven.
