Tina Turner: Love had everything to do with it

I have been listening to rock music for many years. To this day though, I still have to hear a version of What’s Love Got to Do with It that puts a new spin to the song or one that approximates the spellbinding power that Tina Turner put into it.

I read somewhere that songwriters Graham Lyle and Terry Britten first offered the song to the British pop star Cliff Richard. Wonder what that would have sounded like. Europop diva Donna Summer considered it and kept it in her list of “possibles” for a few years. But she, too, eventually passed. And that was when it landed on Tina’s lap. Initially lukewarm about it, she was finally convinced to record the song. What followed next is now history.

What’s Love Got to Do with It became Tina’s first No. 1 seller and eventually her biggest selling record of all time. Then, already 44 years old, she effortlessly swept aside nominees like Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Chicago, Cyndi Lauper and others to win the Record of the Year, Female Pop Vocalist of the Year and Song of the Year trophies at the 1985 Grammy Awards.

There is really no way that one can go around it. One can never think of Tina Turner without thinking of What’s Love Got to Do with It and vice-versa. Maybe this is because, the song comes across as what an empowered woman would say after being trapped in an abusive relationship and then being able to make that big courageous escape. What’s love got to do with it, really. It is just sex.

Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock on Nov. 26, 1939 in a farm in Tennessee. Her mother left the family to escape from her also abusive husband and Tina and her sisters were sent to live with their aunt or at times with their grandmother. To earn money, she worked as a maid and as a nurse’s aide. But she also wanted to sing and got her chance when one of her sisters got involved with a member of Ike Turner’s band.

Soon, Tina was also romantically involved with Turner. That was when she got her name and when Turner gave her that all important training as a singer and performer. Soon after, Turner’s Kings of Rhythm Band became the Ike and Tina Turner Revue and the hits started pouring in.  River Deep Mountain High, Proud Mary, I’ve Been Loving You Too Long, A Fool in Love and others.

While the relationship got her on the road to stardom, it was also a difficult one. Turner was not only physically abusive, he also subjected her to grueling tours across the US and abroad. One night, she finally decided to escape. Scared but bravely she left their hotel and walked across the freeway to the Ramada in front where she hid with 36 cents in her pocket and a gas card. Determined to be free, she later cleaned houses to tide herself over. Unknown to her, destiny was in fact grooming her for bigger things.

Tina laid it out for all the world to see in the feature film titled What’s Love Got to Do with It, in the book, I’Tina and later on in Tina, the jukebox musical on Broadway. It was a tale that resonated with many across the world and Tina became this admired woman, a true icon of courage who stood up against abuse and then made something of herself.

Made something of herself, Tina really did. There were songs like Private Dancer, Better Be Good to Me, The Best, Typical Male, I Don’t Wanna Fight. Movie outings as the Acid Queen in The Who’s musical Tommy and singing We Don’t Need Another Hero in Mad Max (Thunderdome).

Aside from the Grammys, Billboards, American Music Awards and others from the entertainment industry, Tina was the first black woman on the cover of Rolling Stone. She had a Guinness record for the largest paying rock concert attendance for a solo artist, 180,000 people in Rio de Janeiro. She was conferred the Kennedy Center honor. She was placed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, solo and with Ike Turner.

Tina Turner passed away last May 24 at her home in Zurich, Switzerland. She was 83 years old and a well-loved idol. In the long run, love had everything to do with what she was.