The rock and roll legend died today at the age of 84. The survivor of an abusive marriage to the utterly awful IkeTurner with whom she first became famous as a duo, she resurrected her career after the break up to become an incredibly successful performer.
Here is a montage of live performances of her singing my favorite song of hers River Deep, Mountain High. You can see why she was such a big draw.
She was also reputedly one of the nicest people in show business, invariably kind to everyone around her.
Googling:
RIP Tina, Gentle and kind lady.
She also has perhaps the finest example of a song cover in my opinion, with her rendition of Proud Mary. It’s different enough from the source and has enough originality in it that it is unmistakably her own work in her own style. I think only Johnny Cash’s Hurt can rival it.
My brain has a hard time processing she was 84. She was one of these people who seemed to transcend time. She was never a particular age, she was somehow always just Tina Turner.
I was in my late teens, loose in New York city going to college, when Murray the K, on local radio, pushed River Deep, Mountain High (which he thought had gotten short shrift in the US). I was more into classical and folkier stuff, but I bought that single.
No great Phil Spector fan, but back then, in mono on a car radio, it was just right, the wall of sound back there with the rumble and the fuzz and the wind noise. Tina front and center. Just right.
I threw that single on the turntable yesterday. As the old restaurant review put it, some versions are cleaner, but that one has more flavor.