in the human league, they were going to be in heaven 17. they were doing an album of cover versions called british electric foundation and they persuaded tina to sing the temptations ball of confusion. that gave capitol records the idea to give her a one single year deal. and she made the most of it doing an impassioned cover version of let s stay together, the al green song. that allowed capital to say, right, you have two weeks to capitalize on this and make an album. and she did it where i am in london in two weeks, scrambling to find songs, calling in favours, getting dire straits to give her private dancer, getting david bowie to let her cover 1984, and even doing a cover version of a buck s fizz song, what s love got to do with it? she was given the chance and she made the most of it taking songs that other people weren t making work, pouring her life story into it,
With her commanding stage presence and astonishingly powerful voice, unbowed even in the face of abuse, Turner lit up every phase of 20th century pop, writes Alexis Petridis