The first hit song that brought Tina Turner back
Most people will appreciate that the 1980s represented the peak of the music career of Tina Turner. Fewer will realise that the battle it took her to get there almost cost her her life.
After escaping the wrath of her abusive marriage and musical partnership with Ike Turner, to all intents and purposes, the singer had a fresh slate upon which she could build whatever musical dynasties she liked. Well, that was at least the idea in principle – but by the early 1980s, she was a single mother, in her forties, and essentially rudderless without a record deal. The climb to get back on top was seemingly insurmountable.
Yet a stroke of luck and a hell of a lot of belief from an A&R man named John Carter led Turner back to the door of Capitol Records, where she was signed in 1983. But there were still many sceptics, who saw her as nothing but a faded legacy act, having already sold out doing Las Vegas shows ever since her split from her husband. But if there was anything Turner was bound to do, it was to prove the naysayers wrong.
As such, the label took a gamble by allowing her to release the single ‘Let’s Stay Together’ – a cover of the Al Green hit from 1972 – as a means of testing the waters, but with the anticipation of her proving their suspicion of being a sellout all along. Of course, how wrong they were. The song shot to number five in the UK charts upon its release in November 1983, one place higher than Green’s original position. All of a sudden, Turner was back on top.
But the success of ‘Let’s Stay Together’ was somewhat skewed by the prospect of what came next – she had to make an album, but had nothing to do it with. She later recalled this as being one of the most pivotal, but equally perilous, periods of her career.
“Private Dancer was very adventurous,” she explained. “I had a hit record – ‘Let’s Stay Together’ – [but] I had no producer. I barely had a record company. It was really getting out there for the first time with a manager trying to get songs, trying to get producers making an album. We had a single which was a hit record and we didn’t have an album. That was very adventurous.”
Still, despite all the hardship and heartache she’d faced up to that point, it was obvious this was a woman fuelled by sheer determination – the kind who’d be damned if she didn’t turn it all into something meaningful. The result was Private Dancer, which landed in May 1984, just seven months after ‘Let’s Stay Together’ dropped in the UK. With only a fortnight to record the whole thing, it was very much a sink-or-swim moment for Turner – but as they say, diamonds are made under pressure.
Ultimately, Private Dancer proved that Turner still had life in her yet – and not only that, but the best was yet to come. Cementing her status as a solo star and rock icon for the rest of her reinvigorated career, it’s clear that ‘Let’s Stay Together’ was the first catalyst in a chain reaction of success, without which the world wouldn’t have one of its greatest stars. That first moment of taking a leap was either going to be flight or fumble. The fact it was the former is not testament to any level of record label foresight, but down to the sheer tenacity of the woman herself.
