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Ike & Tina Turner were an American rock & roll and soul duo, made of the husband-and-wife team of Ike Turner and Tina Turner in the 1960s and 1970s. Spanning sixteen years together as a recording group, the duo's repertoire included rock & roll, soul, blues and funk. They are known for their wild and entertaining dance shows and especially for their scintillating cover of "Proud Mary", for which they won a Grammy Award. The duo were inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.
Ike Turner's first taste of musical stardom occurred in 1951 when his band, The Kings of Rhythm, recorded the blues single, "Rocket 88", later debated as the first rock and roll record ever issued. However, due to music industry regulations, the song was credited to Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats. Brenston later left for his own solo career, while Ike and his band concentrated on performing at local haunts in St. Louis.
In 1956, a sixteen-year-old named Anna Mae Bullock had moved from her hometown of Nutbush, Tennessee, to live with her mother and sister in St. Louis. By the mid 1950s, Turner and the Kings of Rhythm held a regular night spot at Club Manhattan in St Louis; Bullock became a regular at the club and would sing along with all the songs the band played. Turner initially ignored her, but was eventually suitably impressed that he allowed her to sing backup vocals with the band. Bullock became an occasional vocalist in Turner's shows at the age of 18. Going by the name "Little Ann", she became the spotlight of a soul revue led by Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm band. He also changed his group's name from The Kings of Rhythm to The Ike & Tina Turner Revue.
Success-1960s-1973
Turner used Bullock's voice on a recording of his self-penned song, "A Fool In Love", to lay down a guide track for a male singer who did not attend the recording. He sent the recording to Sue Records in New York, where label owner Juggy Murray insisted on putting out the track with Bullock's vocal. Murray offered a $25,000 advance for the song, convinced it was a hit. The song was released in 1960 under the name Ike & Tina Turner and became a national hit in early 1960, reaching number 2 in the R&B charts and becoming a top thirty pop hit in the process. The duo had five substantial hits on Sue, in particular a cover of Rose Marie McCoy's "It's Gonna Work Out Fine" reached number 2 in the R&B charts and number 14 on the national charts, gaining the duo a Grammy Award nomination. A third hit, 1962's "Poor Fool", was a sequel to "A Fool in Love", which peaked at number thirty-eight. The original group was extended to include three new background singers later known as "The Ikettes". Throughout their recording career, the ensemble was known simply as Ike and Tina Turner with Tina fronting the band through Ike's leadership. Ike Turner would move the band around to different labels looking for the best deal, and between 1964 and 1969 they recorded on Sonja, Warner Bros., Kent, Loma, Modern, Philles, Innis, Blue Thumb, Minit, and A&M. Ike & Tina's touring popularity as a live act helped them land spots on national teen shows including Shindig!, Hollywood A Go-Go and American Bandstand. The Ike & Tina Turner Revue were a national attraction by the mid-1960s even with limited top forty pop success.
In 1966, Phil Spector signed Ike & Tina to his Philles label and recorded the landmark single, "River Deep - Mountain High", with Ike accepting $25,000 from Spector not to participate in the recording and to allow him to record Tina alone. The single did not sell well in the States, causing Spector's retreat from the music industry, but was a big hit in Europe, reaching number 3 in the UK singles chart. This brought the duo to the attention of Mick Jagger, who in 1969 invited them to tour with and open for The Rolling Stones, bringing them to a wider audience outside of soul.
In 1968, the duo were signed to the newly formed Blue Thumb Records and released the blues-heavy Outta Season. During 1968 they also released albums on Pompeii Records (a subdivision of Atco) and Capitol Records. They followed up Outta Season in 1969 with The Hunter on Blue Thumb. From this Tina received another Grammy Nomination for Best R&B Female Vocal Performance for the song "Bold Soul Sister". The same year, the group opened for the Rolling Stones on their Altamont festival (one song from their performance appears in the 1970 documentary of the concert, Gimme Shelter). That year, they scored a hit with their version of Sly & the Family Stone's "I Want To Take You Higher". Also in 1970, they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and performed an early version of what would be their biggest hit to date - a cover of the Creedence Clearwater Revival song "Proud Mary", as well as performing "Bold Soul Sister". Released in early 1971, "Proud Mary" gave the duo their biggest chart success as it reached number four on the American pop singles chart, and won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group in 1972. In 1971, they performed in Africa for a documentary film titled Soul II Soul, and were more briefly seen performing in the Milos Forman film Taking Off. The duo scored their final Top 40 chart hit with the Tina-penned semi-autobiographical song "Nutbush City Limits" in 1973.
Decline
By 1975, the Ike & Tina Turner Revue's popularity was fading as the band had not scored a hit in a couple of years. Tina appeared on some shows without Ike such as The Cher Show and The Mike Douglas Show. This was usually due to the fact that Ike was too drugged out to appear, but he was enough of an entertainer to know that somebody still had to keep the group in the public eye. Also in 1975, Tina would appear in the rock musical Tommy as the Acid Queen.
Tina would describe her years with Ike as imprisoned torture at his hands. Years later, Tina recalled in her I, Tina autobiography that Ike used abuse to control her throughout the pair's 16-year marriage. She finally escaped from Ike after another violent confrontation while en route to a hotel in Dallas before a show in 1976. The Ike & Tina Turner Revue came to an end. Tina then filed for divorce and the former duo fought over legal matters in divorce court until the matter was resolved in 1978. During this time, both Tina and Ike were sued by concert promoters for concerts missed due to the breakup.
Solo careers
After leaving the duo Tina at first struggled to recapture their popularity. She released solo albums, the first being 1978's "Rough (album)" but it failed to make a real impression on the charts. Tina remained a strong stage draw and Rod Stewart brought her along to perform a rendition of his top 40 single "Hot Legs" on Saturday Night Live in 1978. Tina's next release was 1979's "Love Explosion (album)", and it too failed on the charts. After these unsuccessful albums her record labels (United Artists Records in the US and EMI in the UK) parted ways with her. In 1983, she scored another major record deal, this time with Capitol Records. Tina eventually found solo stardom following the release of 1984's Private Dancer album which sold 11 million copies worldwide, and included the biggest hit of her career, "What's Love Got to Do With It", her only US number-one hit, a position Ike & Tina Turner never reached while recording together. Tina would go on to release several more albums that were certified multi-platinum or gold in the US. She would ultimately win eight Grammy Awards throughout her career, and embark on several successful world tours.
Ike, as well, had failed to gain any solo success in the years immediately following his split with Tina. He, too, was besmirched by legal troubles. However, Ike never recovered musically and found success on the level Tina did as a solo artist, or even matched the moderate success he had when they were a duo. In the mid-1980s, he was sentenced to several years in a California state prison stemming from drug charges. After his release from prison in 1993, Ike found some musical acclaim, winning his first solo Grammy in 2007 with his album Risin' With the Blues. Ike died later that year in December 2007 of a cocaine overdose.
Ike & Tina Turner were inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1991; Ike Turner was still incarcerated and Tina, still not wanting any ties to Ike whatsoever, didn't attend, but stated she was working on an album. Phil Spector accepted their induction on the former duo's behalf.
The group was nominated three times for Grammy Awards. They were nominated and won Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Group in 1971 for "Proud Mary" at the 14th Annual Grammy Awards. Tina herself received a nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for the 1969 song "Bold Soul Sister". The group also received a nomination for their 1961 recording "It's Gonna Work Out Fine".
The group received a NAACP Image Award. Both Ike and Tina each received stars and were inducted individually to the St. Louis Hall of Fame.
Two of their songs, "River Deep - Mountain High" and "Proud Mary", were inducted to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999 and 2003, respectively.
Tina received a solo star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1986.
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