The Definitive 1000 Songs Of All Time 1955 to 2005: Number 756

Number 756

Tina Turner

"Private Dancer"

(1984)

Genre:Pop

Tina Turner epitomises beauty and sexiness. The "Born Again" Pop singer re-emerged in the 80's to be once again the "Queen Of Pop". She packed out concert venues throughout the world and sold millions of Albums.In a few hundred years when they research the person called Tina Turner the meaning of "Phoenix", im sure will be closely associated.

"The most dynamic female soul singer in the history of the music, Tina Turner 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, 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 & 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 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." 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"), after which Tina began to decline, still charting occasionally and selling respectably with albums including 1989's Foreign Affair, 1996's Wildest Dreams, and 2000's Twenty Four Seven." ~ John Bush

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What does Rolling Stone Magazine think about Tina Turner?
"Through the '80s she built up an enormous reservoir of goodwill with fans and critics who saw in her struggle a genuine triumph over forces that would overwhelm less hardy souls. She toured incessantly after Private Dancer broke big, so it was unsurprising that the similarly-styled followup, Break Every Rule, failed to generate the heat or sales of its predecessor. Foreign Affair was closer to the bone. Featuring a number of songs by the redoubtable swamp rocker Tony Joe White (who also contributed some suitably grungy guitar licks), the album had more of a blues edge than anything Turner had done since leaving Ike, even though its sound is grounded in contemporary rock. The old ebullience has returned to her voice here, especially in her alluring moans. On "The Best" she brought virtue to the big, booming, and justifiably maligned power ballad simply on the strength of her ferocious approach to the lyrics. Even better, "Undercover Agent for the Blues" took her back to her roots in its blues shadings and right into the present with its pop sheen. Simply the Best kicked off a new decade by summarizing Turner's '80s work, but also takes a broader overview by including the towering Ike and Tina single, "River Deep, Mountain High," remastered by original producer Phil Spector, as well as the " '90s Version" of Ike and Tina's 1973 hit, "Nutbush City Limits."

Rolling Stone Top 500 Songs ranked this song at Number (Only "Whats Love Got To Do With It at 309) and the Album ranked at Number (Once again only with her Ex Ike Turner)

This song has a total crowbarred rating of 65.7 out of 108

Tina Turner - Private Dancer
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