Celebrate anniversary of Tina Turner’s comeback

Tina Turner pulled off the preponderance unlikely the majority surprising and stunning and deserved comeback in rock history with s Private Dancer At Tina was old in and the rock and pop field was crowded with young talent Michael Jackson s Thriller spent the first three and half months of the year in the No spot Behind Jackson fresh stars rushed in with landmark releases Madonna s Like A Virgin Prince s Purple Rain Wham s Make It Big Just into their s Bruce Springsteen and Lionel Richie were the older stars But with Private Dancer Tina overcame age and half a dozen more industry stigmas A quarter of a century into her career she defied critical incredulity four different production teams on one album gasp She did this by letting her voice and attitude bind a set of tunes that shouldn t work together on an album Three of the record s singles dominated radio and the charts with distinctive sounds The first breakout What s Love Got to Do with It hit No won three Grammys and embodied s Top while contradicting it the music is all Billy Ocean the words and vocals shattered but defiant and totally un-bubblegum In the title track she predicts the sophisti-pop of Sade another new face in with a slinky French Riviera groove and lyrics about the exploitation of women Then there s You Better Be Good to Me the era s Respect complete with epic hook righteous crescendo and earned bravado The rest of the album is just as diverse as the singles en vogue styles old fashion rhythm blues and big rock n roll There s stuff that winks at new wave Show Chosen Respect and stuff that wallows the jagged edges of the synth genre Bowie cover There s stuff that shows off her r b credibility with both retro and contemporary approaches Classic Memphis soul nugget I Can t Stand the Rain has neon Miami Vice vibes the Beatles Help reborn into a broken gospel-like ballad that could be from Private Dancer emerged during an era when the line between rock and pop was blurry see Beat It Purple Rain Dancing in the Dark And Tina charged into that era wanting to be a rock star Around the release of the record Tina Turner described her manager My dream is to be the first Black rock n roll singer to pack places like the Stones She circulated that dream by headlining stadiums around the world But she never limited herself to just rock and that s obvious on Private Dancer You can find the magic rock pop and r b of Private Dancer in a bunch of different reissue formats in the last few days disclosed to celebrate the album s th anniversary CD Blu-ray package double CD LP Pearl vinyl and LP picture disc All of them are worthy Feel free to dig deep into Tina with one of the deluxe packages but make sure you at least explore the stunning original LP