Following her split with husband and musical partner Ike Turner in the late ’70s, Tina Turner’s career was dead. Two solo albums tanked in quick succession, she was left without a record label and reduced to performing in tiny clubs or as part of Las Vegas cabaret shows. Even a prestigious opening slot for a trio of Rolling Stones New York arena dates in 1981 and a collaboration with Rod Stewart on Saturday Night Live didn’t help.
But just when it looked like there was no hope but as a floundering nostalgia act, Turner made the most unlikely of comebacks with the 1984 album Private Dancer and the smash hit singles “What’s Love Got to Do with It” and “Better Be Good to Me.” This week, a series of anniversary releases in various formats are landing on shelves to celebrate the LP and the period when one of the biggest stars of the ‘60s and ‘70s showed a new generation she still reigned supreme. Included are an array of previously unreleased tracks, live performances, and video footage.
The centerpiece of the release is a 5CD/Blu-ray set, which includes the newly upgraded 55-minute Private Dancer Tour show filmed at England’s NEC Arena in Birmingham between two historic nights, March 23 and 24, 1985. Directed by David Mallet and featuring performances with David Bowie and Bryan Adams, the landmark concert has been meticulously restored, offering a front-row experience of Turner at her electrifying best. Alongside the live performance, the set includes five upgraded music videos, with the title track fully restored to 4K from its original 35mm film.
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Additional formats include a 2CD edition, a striking 1LP picture disc featuring the official UK/EU cover on one side and the US cover on the other, and a limited-edition 1LP pearl vinyl with a 12×12 art card of the US album artwork. There’s also the previously unheard track “Hot for You Baby,” written by Australian singer John Paul Young. The song was originally intended to be an album track and thought to be lost to time, but its discovery introduces a fresh chapter in the Private Dancer story.
Released in May 1984, Private Dancer might’ve marked Turner’s triumphant rebirth, but it didn’t become a cultural phenomenon overnight. Though she had been signed to Capitol Records in the early ‘80s by an ambitious A&R man, the label wasn’t planning to put any money behind her. But when her cover of Al Green’s classic “Let’s Stay Together” became an unexpected hit, Capitol wanted a new record, and they wanted it yesterday.
Across a frenetic two-week period, she recorded Private Dancer, which was a mix of covers and songs written expressly for Turner by hitmakers at the time like Holly Knight, Ann Pebbles, and Mike Chapman. The LP went five times Platinum and sold an estimated 12 million copies worldwide, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard Top 200 and No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart.
Eventually, Turner would bring home four Grammy Awards for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for “Better Be Good to Me” and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, Record of the Year, and Song of the Year for the chart-topping Billboard Hot 100 track, “What’s Love Got to Do with It?”
A version of this article appears in this week’s print and online editions of my syndicated Rock Music Menu column under the title “Tina Turner’s comeback ‘Private Dancer’ marks 40 years with special editions.“
The Chronicles of Michael Christopher 
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