*On this day 39 years ago, Tina Turner began a comeback for the ages – and set a couple of records – when her first solo single, “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” hit number one on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart.
Not only did the first single from her “Private Dancer” album prove that she didn’t need her ex-husband, Ike Turner, but the song set two records when it topped the Hot 100 on September 1, 1984. At 44, she became the oldest female solo artist ever to reach No. 1, and the single marked the longest time between an artist’s first song to chart and first No. 1 hit.
It had been 24 years since Ika and Tina Turner first touched a Billboard chart in 1960 with “A Fool in Love.”
“What’s Love Got to Do With It” has Turner singing as a woman who enjoys a sexual relationship with her significant other, but with no strings attached. Turner famously hated its anti-love message and didn’t want to record it, but trusted in her new manager Roger Davies, who was resurrecting her post-Ike career. Davies’ friends, Terry Britten and Graham Lyle, wrote the track, with Britten producing.
Turner’s trust in Davies paid off. Five months after “What’s Love Got to Do With It” hit number one, she found herself at the Grammy Awards collecting multiple statues for the track, including Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Female Vocal Performance. Watch her performance of the song and one of her acceptance speeches at the 27th Grammy Awards ceremony below.
In the music video for “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” Turner struts around New York City slinging her lyrics like a boss. Short skirt, denim jacket, stiletto heels, big hair, don’t care. The video was directed by Mark Robinson, who also helmed the Ashford & Simpson visual for “Solid.”
The video, like the song itself, also earned critical acclaim, including an MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video at the network’s second ceremony.
Watch her performance below.
“What’s Love Got to Do With It” was of course used as the title for Turner’s 1993 biopic, which earned Angela Bassett an Oscar nomination for the title role.
The song itself also made a huge splash on television, adding dramatic ambiance to such varied fare as “Perfect Strangers,” “Desperate Housewives” and in this 1984 episode of “Miami Vice,” titled “Calderone’s Return: Part 2 – Calderone’s Demise.”
Click through (via the “Watch on YouTube” link on the player below) to watch on YouTube, beginning at 2:05
Last but not least, one year before the current “Barbie” film hit theaters, Mattel released a Tina Turner Barbie Doll based 100 percent on her look from the “What’s Love Got To Do With It” video.
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