The Story Behind the Album: 'Private Dancer', Tina Turner (1984)

Today on Story Behind The Album , we take a deep dive into the making, release and stories you might not know behind Tina Turner's 'Private Dancer' (1984).

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Clearsy releases the story behind the album Private Dancer. It's
the fifth solo studio album by Tina Turner, released in
May nineteen eighty four. After several challenging years of going
solo after divorcing Ike Turner, Private Dancer propelled Tina into
becoming a viable solo star. It became a worldwide commercial success,

(00:34):
earning multi platinum certifications. Recording sessions were overseen by four
different production teams. Was done in England and one of
their producers was actually Martin Ware from Heaven seventeenasing it.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Was in the original lineup of Human League as well,
and he was quite a talent. He's Martin quite interesting.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
I was due to record with James Brown on my
British Electric Foundation projects and he backed out at the
last minutes. So somebody happened to be wandering through the
Virgin Officers and said, oh, what about Tina Turner And
I've just been to see her do the Proud Mary
Show in London and I thought, wow, that'd be amazing.
So we did a cover version of All of Confusion

(01:14):
by the Temptations and that led to us being asked
to record some stuff for Private Dancer. And we quickly
decided between us, myself and Tina that we should do
Let's Stay Together by Al Green, and I said to
her that she should nail her legacy as one of

(01:35):
the greatest soul singers of all time before she went
on to do a real Passion, which was rock and roll.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
So good, good advice.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
I didn't know he was in human league as seventeen.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, before that really took off. Feel like that, yeah right.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
Well.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
The album received a positive reception from the critics. The
Los Angeles Times wrote that Tina that Turner's voice. Will
Tina turn on Turner's voice melts? Vinyl rolling Stone reviewed
her voice as rusping but strong. You definitely hear that
in Private Dancer, don't you.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Absolutely. You think about that time when Tina was playing.
You know, she's doing her review, she's doing the shows
and that, but wasn't getting the attention. It was a
bit like well we talked about recently last week with
the John Farner album, there was always one before we
spring Jack. He was struggling. But in so Tina was
sort of in that same boat, and she had mates
like the Stones and Rod Stewarts had come out and
tour and be a supporter support. So she had great

(02:31):
support and his team of talking about the recording of
the album and the song the mark not for song
Private Dancer.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
The album took two weeks.

Speaker 4 (02:40):
I finished a British tour and I worked around the
city meeting with different producers listening to songs. Because Roger
and I, which is Rogerdina and my manager, decided that
we would try to make the album in London because
there was a vibe there. Most city gather had gone
terrifically well and nothing was happening in America, and they

(03:00):
had been problems with talking with producers there to do
what we wanted, which was I didn't want to do
just R and B material, you know. So after scarving
around for two weeks in London, graduated contact with the
Terry Britton and Lucknaffler and Ruler Prime. But I received
private dads of the song. I was so excited because

(03:23):
it was for the first time I would be able
to sing that type of song. I didn't cure that
the song was possibly about a hooker or a girl
that dad's wet money. I thought it was a beautiful song.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
It's a beautiful song which we just heard moments ago
and Roger Davis, the Australian who also was manager of
many other artists, including Sherbert. Over the years, the.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
Album has sold more than twelve million copies worldwide. At
the nineteen eighty five Grammy Awards, Private Dancer won four
of the six awards that it was nominated for.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
And we mentioned these albums we're digging deep into. They've
got so many hits on them. Is Tina talking about
one of the hits? Were about to play, What's I've
Got to do with It?

Speaker 5 (03:58):
The song What's Love Got to do with It?

Speaker 4 (04:01):
It talks about a distrust of emotion, a distrust of love,
having those feelings.

Speaker 5 (04:08):
Does that at all reflect.

Speaker 4 (04:10):
How you feel about it?

Speaker 1 (04:12):
No?

Speaker 5 (04:13):
In my case, love has a lot to do with it.
I'm sorry. But with the world today, I mean, everything
is very fast and women have changed and men has
changed as well. So I think the song sort of
really fit a lot of liberated girls. I mean, if
they're like, yeah, that's right, you know, what does love have.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
To do with it?

Speaker 1 (04:32):
Anyway?

Speaker 5 (04:32):
And I'm going, oh, yeah, that's right, that's what it means. Okay,
you know, But in my case, I'm more of a
one that I think love has everything to do with everything.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
Such a great voice too, speaking voice to you. I believe
it's a year and a half since we lost that.
Absolutely and bullo