Retro Video of the Week: "What's Love Got to Do With It" by Tina Turner

Thirty-five years ago today, Tina Turner released her massive album, Private Dancer -- her first album in five years.  This revamped a career that had been rough since her divorce from Ike Turner about six years before then (when she basically gave him everything except her name as part of the divorce settlement).  If you're a child of the '80s like me, you never really remember a time when Tina Turner wasn't a huge star -- and that's because of this album.

Private Dancer was the first of her solo career to crack the Top 100 on the Billboard album charts, and it went all the way up to #3, as well as Top 5 on the album charts in 11 other countries (including #1 in Canada and Austria).  It also went platinum five times in the U.S., making it her most successful-selling studio album.

There were five Top 40 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 off of Private Dancer:  her cover of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" (#26 -- which was actually released before the album), "What's Love Got to Do With It (#1), "Better Be Good To Me" (#5), the title track (#7), and "Show Some Respect" (#37).  

I have to go with "What's Love Got To Do With It."  It's the song I associate most with Tina Turner -- yes, even more than "Proud Mary."  It won Turner three Grammys (Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance), was her only #1 song in the U.S., is one of the top 500 songs of all-time (according to Rolling Stone), made her (at the time) the oldest female solo artist in U.S. history to have a #1 song (she was 44), and, of course, provided the title for her 1993 biopic starring Angela Basset. It remained at #1 for three weeks and ended 1984 as the second-biggest song of the year, beaten out only by Prince's "When Doves Cry."

Not to be outdone, the video won the MTV VMA for Best Female Video.  Interesting tidbit:  one of the street dancers in the video (I believe she's the one at the 2:45 mark and then at the end as well) is none other than Pamela Springsteen, who is not only Bruce's sister, but also played the lead role of Angela "The Angel of Death" Baker in two of my favorite '80s B horror movies, Sleepaway Camp 2 and Sleepaway Camp 3.  Check them out.  You won't be disappointed.