Happy Anniversary: Tina Turner, “What’s Love Got to Do with It”
30 years ago today, Tina Turner released the single which, building on the momentum of her then-recent cover of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together,” turned what originally could’ve been a one-off return to the charts and helped transform Tina’s tale into one of the great comeback stories of the ‘80s.
After splitting from her husband Ike Turner in 1976, Tina didn’t hesitate to enter into a solo career, but her efforts proved far from commercially successful: aside from a funked-up take on Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” which provided her with a minor hit single on the US R&B charts (it only made it to #61), she never had another single so much as chart for the remainder of the ‘70s. Indeed, it wasn’t until the aforementioned 1983 Al Green cover – produced by Heaven 17 members Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh – that she troubled the charts again.
That “What’s Love Got to Do with It” proved to be the song that fully instituted Tina’s comeback is somewhat amazing to believe when you consider that its writers, Terry Britten and Graham Lyle, originally offered it to Cliff Richard, who rejected it. Then they offered it to Phyllis Hyman, but Clive Davis – head of Hyman’s label at the time, Arista Records – said no. Reportedly, the song landed in Donna Summer’s hands next, but she never got around to recording it, so it somehow ended up in the hands of Bucks Fizz, a band most Americans don’t know but that Brits know all too well, and they actually did record it, but with Jay Aston on vocals because the producer said that songs wasn’t suitable for a female vocal. Obviously, the producer was wrong, but it ultimately didn’t matter, because plans to include the band’s version on their next album were scrapped when Tina’s version came out first. (If you’re curious about how it sounded, here you go.)
In addition to providing a title for the bio-pic about Tina’s life and times, “What’s Love Got to Do with It” went on to become a #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, hitting #3 in the UK, and it earned Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 1985 Grammy Awards, not to mention Best Female Video at the 1985 MTV Video Music Awards, and in 2012 the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In other words, it was and remains a stone cold classic.
By the way, if you haven’t revisited Private Dancer recently, you can check it out below, but if you don’t actually own a copy, you might want to restrain yourself until the end of the month: that’s when we’re issuing a two-disc 30th Anniversary Edition of the album, with the second disc featuring 15 additional tracks, including Tina’s cover of “Ball of Confusion,” a live duet of “Tonight” with David Bowie, her classic duet with Bryan Adams, “It’s Only Love,” several additional 12” remixes, B-sides, and live tracks, and – as is only appropriate with Fury Road currently in theaters – you also get “We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome).” So when you go pick up a copy on June 30, be sure to tell the clerk that Aunty Entity sent you.
