As the world commemorates Tina Turner, who has died in her home in Switzerland at the age of 83, it does so to a soundtrack of the rock and soul legend’s greatest hits – chief among them What’s Love Got To Do With It, written by Largs-born songwriter Graham Lyle.
Formerly one half of 1970s duo Gallagher and Lyle, Mr Lyle co-wrote the song with fellow songwriter Terry Britten and it appeared on Ms Turner’s 1984 album Private Dancer. It became Mr Turner’s biggest selling single, provided her with her first and only Billboard 100 number one and to date has sold over 2 million copies. It was also the title for a 1993 biopic about her, directed by Brian Gibson and starring Angela Bassett.
That isn’t the only Scottish connection with Ms Turner either. Private Dancer’s seven-minute title track was written by Glasgow-born Mark Knopfler, guitarist and musical mainstay with Dire Straits.
Speaking in 2012, when What’s Love Got to Do With It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, Mr Lyle recalled the background to the song and how it ended up in the hands of Tina Turner despite it being wanted by Cliff Richard, Manfred Mann and Buck’s Fizz, who had won the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest.
“We sent the demo to the publishers and got at least four people wanting to record it,” he said. “Tina was one of them. We were given the opportunity as the writers to say which artist we wanted to record it.
“I wanted Tina to do it. She was one of the greats, though she was having a tough time and didn’t even have a record deal.”
At the time, Ms Turner was considered a nostalgia act, though she had been sought out by members of Heaven 17 to contribute to their British Electric Foundation project, for which she recorded a dance music version of The Temptations’ Ball Of Confusion. But with Private Dancer and in particular What’s Love Got To Do With It, she revitalised her career and became one of the biggest selling acts of the 1980s,
Unsurprisingly, news of her death after a long illness has been met with tributes from all across the musical world. Sir Mick Jagger, who famously duetted with Tina Turner during Live Aid in 1985 and who has previously said it was her who taught him to dance, wrote on Instagram: “I’m so saddened by the passing of my wonderful friend Tina Turner. She was truly an enormously talented performer and singer.”
Sir Elton John called her a “total legend on record and on stage,” and described her death as “the saddest news”. He added: “We have lost one of the world’s most exciting and electric performers. A total legend on record and on stage. She was untouchable.”
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