From Clarksdale, Mississippi, pianist/guitarist Ike Turner, with his Kings Of Rhythm, was instrumental in the birth of rock’n’roll, with Rocket 88, a US R&B No.1 hit in 1951, widely acknowledged as the first recording of the genre.
Tina Turner, born Anna Mae Bullock, meanwhile, was raised in the Baptist church in Nutbush, Tennessee, belting out holy roller gospel from an early age.
By 1958, both she and Ike were in East St Louis, their paths crossing at the city’s Club Manhattan; Ike leading the house band, Tina an audience regular. One night, she got on stage with Ike, burning her way through BB King’s You Know I Love You. “My jaw literally dropped,” Ike later said.
A musical and personal relationship ensued and, in late 1959, when Ike’s band’s singer failed to show at a session, Tina took over; the result, 1960’s US R&B No.2 hit, A Fool In Love, which captured one of Tina’s most passionate vocal performances. It kickstarted a series of successful 45s; 1961’s I Idolize You and It’s Gonna Work Out Fine, plus 1962’s Poor Fool and Tra La La La La all hit the Top 10.
In 1966, they recorded River Deep – Mountain High, with five of the tracks produced by Phil Spector. A pioneering amalgam of black gospel fervour with white pop, it broke Ike and Tina in the UK; the title track hit the Top 5 as a single. They reverted to their R&B roots with albums for Blue Thumb in 1968 and ’69, then pushed boundaries again incorporating rock into their soul on a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Proud Mary, and Nutbush City Limits – which, written by Tina, became the couple’s last Top 20 placing.
When the hits dried up, Tina had no reason to stay: years of Ike’s emotional and physical abuse had taken its toll (she attempted suicide in 1968) and, after divorcing him in 1976, she returned triumphant with 1984’s Private Dancer. Ike, a drug addict and alcoholic with a temper, was in prison when the pair were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 1991. He died in 2007.
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