Today is the 58th birthday of R&B legend Tina Turner. Tina, best known to modern audiences for her '80s hits "What's Love Got To Do With It" and "Private Dancer," electrified the '60s soul scene with former husband Ike Turner, making such songs as Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary" and Otis Redding's "I've Been Loving You Too Long" all her own. Born Annie Mae Bullock in Brownsville, Tenn., Tina got her start by singing in a church choir. She first met Ike in 1956 when she jumped on the stage while he was performing, took the microphone and started singing. The two married a few years later and started recording such R&B hits as "It's Gonna Work Out Fine," "I Idolize You" and "Tra La La La La." As would be revealed in Tina's autobiography I, Tina, her years with Ike were filled with abuse, causing her to finally leave the marriage in 1976. Before that happened, though, the soul duo had crossed over to the mainstream, even opening for the Rolling Stones on their 1969 tour.
Retaining nothing from the divorce settlement except the right to the Turner name, Tina had to live on food stamps in order to support her four children, and made little money performing in cabarets and nightclubs. In 1979, she met Roger Davies, who took over as her manager and turned her life around, getting her more opening gigs with the Rolling Stones as well as some with Rod Stewart and a record deal with Capitol. The 1984 #1 "What's Love Got to Do with It" made her a bigger star than she'd ever been. In 1985, she appeared in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, for which she recorded two songs. The rest of the '80s were kind to Tina, with her offering such hits as "Typical Male," "What You Get Is What You See" and "The Best." She and Ike were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, although Ike could not attend the ceremony because he was in prison for possession of cocaine. In 1995, Edge and Bono produced Tina's "Goldeneye," the title track to the James Bond film, and last year, Tina came back to the microphone on Wildest Dreams, a massive world tour.
Other birthdays: John McVie (Fleetwood Mac), 52, and Bret Ruiter (Focus), 51.