Adored for her fiery voice and her extraordinary energy, admired for her strength of character, Tina Turner died on Wednesday May 24 at the age of 83. With his fans, the quality of his songs is matched only by his impressive stage performances. Here are some of his legendary hits.
Released in 1971, this song has become one of Tina Turner’s signature tracks. Proud Mary was originally a single from Creedence Clearwater Revival, released in January 1969. The song was covered by Ike and Tina Turner two years later, in 1971. Their version, released as a single from the album Workin’ Together was a hit with 500,000 copies sold and ranked 4th on the Billboard Hot 100 that same year.
On the original clip from 1971, we see Ike in the background with his guitar, afro ball and golden torque around his neck, and Tina, slicked back hair and short dress of white pearls, behind the microphone. The duo starts “pretty and gently” then builds muscle, over the seconds, in a funk-rock rhythm tinged with Tina’s gospel accents.
Repeated many times by different formations, this classic of the American repertoire has been a red thread in the career of Tina Turner. His flamboyant duet with Beyoncé in 2008 for the fiftieth anniversary of the Grammys has become legendary.
Tina separated from her abusive husband in 1976 after suffering 20 years of beatings. Without a producer, it fell almost into oblivion in the United States. “Given my age, 39, my sex and the color of my skin, let’s say that I was facing headwinds,” she confides in her autobiography. In the United States, she skims TV sets and small rooms while in Europe, she makes beautiful posters.
With Private Dancer, an album offered to her in 1984, Tina Turner returned to grace in her country. What’s Love got to do with it will become the king single of his entire career. It will earn him the Grammy for best recording of the year in 1985. The hit joined the pantheon of world music by obtaining a Grammy Hall of Fame in 2012.
Tina Turner, who had already distinguished herself as the delirious “Acid Queen” in Tommy – the rock opera of the Who in 1975 – was chosen to play in Mad Max: beyond Thunderdome alongside Mel Gibson. In this new adventure of anticipation, she also performs the soundtrack with We don’t need another hero, a new song by Graham Lyle and Terry Britten which becomes another planetary hit. In the summer of 1985, the title was number 1 in Australia, number 2 in the United States and number 3 in the United Kingdom.
For this futuristic role, Tina Turner did not hesitate to shave her head to screw on an impressive synthetic blonde crest enhanced with two oversized hoops. She wears a 55 kg dress cut in chain mail with giant shoulder pads.
Released in 1989, this song has become one of Tina Turner’s most popular anthems and one of the greatest love songs of all time. The queen of rock excels in covers. Originally performed by Bonnie Tyler in 1988, the title taken up the following year by Tina on her album Foreign Affair was a huge success. Some six million copies were sold in 1988.
In 1992, The Best, renamed Simply the Best, was chosen to promote the Australian Rugby Championship. Thanks to its advertising clip animated by the flamboyant Tina in the middle of sweaty and sexy rugby players, the National Rugby League will never be like before. Soon, the anthem was taken up in the United States before certain baseball or football games. Tina becomes the stadium goddess.
After the box of Mad Max, she is chosen for the credits of the eponymous James Bond, with Pierce Brosnan in the title role. In her silver dress slit over her nervously curved legs, the singer, now in her fifties, brings all her vocal power to the score of Bono and The Edge, of the group U2, in the pure tradition of the 007 theme.
