IT remains one of Tina Turner's best-known songs, one that helped her re-establish her career.
Yet 'What's Love Got To Do With it?', which was written by Scots-born Graham Lyle and colleague Terry Bitten, could have gone to an artist other than Turner, who has died at the age of 83.
Tina Turner: 'Queen of rock 'n' roll' dies aged 83
Bucks Fizz, Cliff Richard and Manfred Mann all tried to get the rights to record the song, but Lyle knew it was perfect for Turner.
The song won no fewer than three Grammy awards and provided Turner with her comeback single in 1984. It was her biggest hit since the early 1970s. It topped the US charts and reached number three in the UK.
Speaking in 2012 as the song was ushered into the Grammys' hall of fame - "it's a great honour" - Lyle, one-half of the duo Gallagher and Lyle, recalled:"We sent the demo to the publishers and got at least four people wanting to record it. Tina was one of them. We were given the opportunity as the writers to say which artist we wanted to record it.
"I wanted Tina to do it. She was one of the greats, though she was having a tough time and didn't even have a record deal."
In a Herald interview in 2001, he said: "I'm lucky in having been able to get close to some people, though - artists with the imagination to get a song I might have played roughly for them. Tina Turner and her manager, Roger Davies, had the antenna that let them see a song's potential".
Lyle's children, however, accidentally broke the Grammy he picked up with Britten for co-writing the song. Rather than being made of solid gold, it was actually a gilded and plastic representation of an old-style phonograph.
Lyle had to write to the Grammy organisation in Los Angeles and ask for a replacement.
'What's Love Got To Do With It?' was the lead-off hit on Turner's 1984 album, Private Dancer, which was a global smash. It set a record for the length of time between an artist's chart debut and their first chart-topping single - 24 years.
The title track on Private Dancer was composed by Glasgow-born Mark Knopfler when he was writing new songs for Dire Straits’ album, Love Over Gold.
Review: Tina Turner, SECC, Glasgow, 1996
His website relates how he decided the song was more suited to a female vocalist, written, as it was, from the woman’s point of view.
"He not only gave Tina the song to record, but his Dire Straits bandmates are the backing band on the track", adds the website. Knopfler also has guitar credits on the albums Foreign Affair (1989) and Break Every Rule (1986), on which he also has a production credit.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel