Tina Turner Completes Her Comeback

1984

Tina Turner completes her comeback as "What's Love Got To Do With It" hits #1 in America.

Turner's last big hit was a cover of "Proud Mary" she did with her husband Ike in 1971. After the couple divorced in 1976, Tina's career floundered - her solo albums Rough (1978) and Love Explosion (1979) failed to chart, as she proved to be no disco singer. In debt and doing shows in places like Yugoslavia and Bahrain, she meets an Australian promoter named Roger Davies, who becomes her manager. Davies sets out to get Turner noticed by the bigwigs in New York City, so he books her at The Ritz, where industry executives can see that she's still got the goods. Turner has left a trail of good tidings in her travels and has earned the respect of British superstars who saw her perform in the '70s. These friends in high places do what they can to help her cause: Rod Stewart brings her on stage during his Saturday Night Live gig to sing "Hot Legs"; The Rolling Stones have her open New Jersey shows on their Steel Wheels tour; David Bowie checks her out at The Ritz, as record executives tag along. Primed for a comeback, Turner signs with Capitol Records, who have her record a cover of "Let's Stay Together" with Heaven 17's production team. It takes off in the UK, reaching #6 at the end of 1983. Capitol ponies up for a whole album, but gives Turner just two weeks to record it. Davies enlists a team of songwriters and producers to work on the project, and insists that Turner record "What's Love Got To Do With It," a song written by his buddies Terry Britten and Graham Lyle. She hates the song, but Davies hasn't steered her wrong, so she gamely records it, delivering the lyrics about a woman only interested in the physical aspect of the relationship with conviction. With the Private Dancer album ready to go, Capitol releases the track as a single, and it starts a slow climb up the charts, pushed along by a music video where Turner goes into maneater mode in New York City. In 1985, she wins three Grammy Awards (including Record of the Year for "What's Love Got To Do With It"), plays Rock In Rio and Live Aid, and stars opposite Mel Gibson in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. The following year, Tina reveals details about her abusive relationship with Ike Turner in her autobiography, I, Tina. In 1993, her story is made into a movie starring Angela Bassett. The title: What's Love Got To Do With It.