Musical Monday - What's Love Got to Do With It by Tina Turner

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: September 1, 1984 through September 15, 1984.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: August 25, 1984 through September 8, 1984.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: Never.

Tina Turner reached the top of the charts for the first (and only) time at the age of 44. She had already lived an entire show business lifetime before this song came out - beginning in 1957 when she first started hitting the charts as part of the Ike and Tina Turner Revue. Her career had already peaked in the 1960s, petered out, and died before the end of the 1970s. By 1980, she was a former star. She was also estranged from Ike, who it turns out had been an abusive husband who had badly mistreated Tina for years. For most artists with Tina's career trajectory, the 1980s would have been an empty decade. She might have returned for the nostalgia circuit a decade or two later, but functionally, her career would have been over.

That's not what Tina did. Starting with the album Private Dancer, on which this song appears, she launched a second, even more successful career. Tina Turner was a bigger star after the age of 45 than she had ever been before the age of 45. Even though she was never able to fully replicate the success of What's Love Got to Do With It, she established herself as an act that could fill an arena for the rest of the 1980s and beyond. There were other artists who reivented themselves in the 1980s - Heart, David Bowie, even the Bee Gees - but none came from as far down as Tina did, and few reached similar heights.

Previous Musical Monday: Careless Whisper by George Michael

Subsequent Musical Monday: I Just Called to Say I Love You by Stevie Wonder

Previous #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Ghostbusters by Ray Parker, Jr.

Subsequent #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Missing You by John Waite

Previous #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Ghostbusters by Ray Parker, Jr.

Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Missing You by John Waite

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

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