Biography of Ike & Tina Turner

Ike was up from Mississippi, and had been releasing records for nine years before he finally broke through in 1960 with "A Fool in Love." By then, his second wife, Annie Mae Bullock or "Tina," had joined the act and was developing into perhaps the most torrid performer on the infamous chitlin circuit. Their Sue recordings, of which "A Fool in Love" was one, were tight, punchy early-'60s R&B. From there, Ike moved the act through a bewildering succession of labels, ending up on Liberty/UA where they saw their most consistently successful period between 1970 and 1975 with hits like "Proud Mary" and "Nutbush City Limits." In 1966 there was a strange sidebar to their career when Tina recorded for Phil Spector; the resulting single, "River Deep--Mountain High," is a towering, Wagnerian epic that leaves few people neutral. It is quite unlike anything else she and Ike ever recorded, and its failure supposedly plunged Spector into a bout of depression.Tina split from Ike in 1974 and divorced him two years later. She re-emerged unexpectedly in Europe in 1984 with the stellar "What's Love Got to Do with It?," which she parlayed into a renewed career. She can still be seen hobnobbing with rock's glitterati. Meanwhile, Ike-bashing became a spectator sport; Tina's biography alleged violence, and the LAPD alleged -- and proved -- drug possession, for which he was jailed.Drenched in gospel frenzy and blues soul-searching, The Turners peaked commercially as the '60s ended, with covers of White acts who yearned for a measure of The Turner sex-and-salvation manna. They turned the tables without compromising the feral heat/good time grooves they'd worked ("Nice 'N' Rough") for a decade. ~ Mark A. Humphrey