Keeping Your Eyes on the POLL: Private Dancer by Tina Turner

(ugh, those tags. mods?)

At least three or four classic singles here, of course, but "Steel Claw" is the reason I end up pulling this one out for a spin as often as I do.

Have to go with Better Be Good To Me. A classic cheesy 80s video to boot.

The song was originally intended for Dire Straits' album Love over Gold. The instrumental track was recorded, but Mark Knopfler considered the lyrics unsuitable for a male singer, so the track was cut.[1][2] Legal restrictions prevented the original recording being used by Tina Turner; so, two years later, it was remade by members of the group. Terry Williams replaced the original drummer Pick Withers. Knopfler did not appear on the track and was replaced by Jeff Beck. Turner told DJ Roger Scott:

Roger [Turner's manager] knows Knopfler's manager Ed Bicknell, and Bicknell said, 'I think Mark has a song that could fit Tina, that he never used because he thought it was a song for a girl.' Mark produced the song and sang it, and after he did it he felt that it was not a song for a man, so it was just sitting on the shelf… He gave me the track and I copied it with Dire Straits people – most of them. At first I was going to try to just put my voice on Mark's tapes, but there was a record company problem, so we got Mark's musicians, Dire Straits, and went into the studio... Someone said, 'Why did you select "Private Dancer"? It's a song about a hooker. Is it because you've been a hooker?' And I was shocked... I didn't see her as a hooker... I can be naive about some of these things. But actually the answer is no. I took it because it was an unusual song. I'd never sung a song like it. And I wish you could hear Mark's version of it. He's got a very English-sounding voice... and it was really quite beautiful.... A very arty song... so I put the old soulful touch on it.[3]

Mark Knopfler has said the song was ruined due to "them drafting in Jeff Beck to play the world's second ugliest guitar solo".[4]

damn https://t.co/MppaPugpRn

— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) May 13, 2020

I could vote for every single, including the forgotten "Show Some Respect."

May vote for "I Might Have Been Queen" because, damn, what an opening.

Would be a private dancer in exchange for hearing Dire Straits version of this.

At the time, my vote would have been "1984"

https://www.popmatters.com/tina-turner-story-of-soul-survivor-2496131733.html

I love « Steel Claw », voted for it

I read that Popmatters piece at the time. Impressive.

“Better Be Good To Me” has always been my favourite off this. I forgot it even has cowbells!

It has actually been polled before btw, in 2009, by Alfred! Better Be Good To POLL: The Tina Turner "Private Dancer" Poll
(doesn’t come up if you search for the album title tho, I'm guessing because of the quotation marks around it?)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Immediately threw this onto the turntable after hearing the news. "Steel Claw" still rips, but "I Might Have Been Queen" is a killer opener.

One of those albums where even if most of the tracks weren't killers the star persona is so overwhelming that it carries the rest.