Tina Turner – Private Dancer

Tina Turner – Private Dancer (Remastered)
Originally Release: Nov 16, 1984 | XRCD Release: 1998 | Label: JVC/Capitol
Number: JVCXR-0044-2 | Barcode: 693692004427
Genre: Pop & Rock | Mono/Stereo: 2 Channel
EAC Rip | Included: EAC Log + CUE + Flac + Full Covers
Size: 327 MB | RAR files | RS.com

Product Description

Few have endured such turmoil as Tina Turner. In 1976, after 20 years toil with husband Ike, she was left with nothing but bruises, 36 cents and a Mobil gas card. Oh, and four children. Yet by 1985, with her big highlighted hair and little leather skirt recognised worldwide, she was a 10-million-seller, and a Hollywood star to boot. Collaborating with Heaven 17, Turner had achieved forward momentum. Now, signed to Capitol, she assembled about her a host of famous writer/producers, including Rupert Hine, Terry Brittan and Mike Chapman. The result was Private Dancer, a smart, mainstream and melody-heavy fusion of rock, pop and R&B making the most of Turner’s world-weary persona and roughhouse soul inflections and featured huge singles like “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” and the title track (written by Dire Straits’s Mark Knopfler, guitar courtesy of Jeff Beck). Maybe rock’s greatest comeback. –Dominic Wills

CD Description

In 1984, Tina Turner mounted one of the greatest comebacks in music history. Coming after many years without a hit, PRIVATE DANCER proved to be a monster seller for Turner, spawning three smash singles. At 45 years old, Turner was a superstar-again.

PRIVATE DANCER is the strongest album of Turner’s career. The infectious “What’s Love Got to Do With it” became an MTV staple. The title track, written by Mark Knopfler, features Jeff Beck on guitar. Beck truly shines on the rockin’ “Steel Claw”, where he delivers a blistering solo. Turner lends her distinctive, throaty vocals to Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” and David Bowie’s “1984”. Bonus tracks abound on this deluxe reissue. The rocker “I Wrote a Letter” finds Turner proclaiming that her lover can “make a white girl sing the blues”. “Rock N Roll Widow” is a tender tale of awife left lonely while her musician husband is on the road.”Don’t Rush the Good Things” is an up-tempo number that stresses the importance of enjoying life. “When I Was Young” isa non-repentant look back on Turner’s wild years. PRIVATE DANCER is a fantastic effort by one of the premier female rockers.

Private Dancer was released on November 16, 1984.

The album was an outstanding success in the United States and world-wide, and has sold over 20 million copies, thus making Private Dancer Tina Turner’s most successful solo album and one of the most successful albums of all time world-wide.

At the 1985 Grammy Awards, Private Dancer won four awards.

In 2003 the TV network VH1 named Private Dancer the 95th greatest album of all time.

Personnel:

Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits wrote the title song for this album, Private Dancer. He originally wrote the song for Dire Straits, but then decided to give the song to Tina Turner. Notably, many original members of Dire Straits are part of the personnel who composed this album.

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Reviewed on cd by Greg Smith

I’ll admit that I’m not much of a Tina Turner fan. I really didn’t think that many other audiophiles were either. Despite that, JVC picked Tina’s hit Private Dancer as one of the releases in the XRCD line of aluminum compact discs. Designed to compete with the best CD-mastering systems available, XRCD goes to great lengths to ensure that fidelity losses don’t occur in any part of the digital conversion pipeline. Parts of that process that are often treated as an afterthought, like the clock driving the glass cutter used to make the master CD for production, are carefully controlled and optimized. While most of the buzz about XRCD has come from their reworking of releases in other genres, a small number of popular rock recordings have been handled with this process so far.

Before getting the XRCD in, my collection of Tina Turner’s music had consisted solely of a greatest hits disc. It has most of what I like from her, and it sold for around $5 at McDonald’s with the purchase of any combo meal a few years back. I walked out with a chicken sandwich, fries, Coke, and Tina for $10. Not a bad night, and the sound quality is similar to the other CD releases of her music.

“What’s Love Got To Do With It”
* McCD: A smooth, slick presentation with unexpectedly deep bass.
* XRCD: There are an incredible number of little details brought out of the mix, which is a mixed blessing. You can really hear the characteristics of Tina’s microphone screwing up her voice, and that’s not necessarily a good thing.

“Private Dancer”
After listening to this song many times one day, I found myself humming a little tune:
I’m your private remaster
Remaster for money
When any old music won’t do…
I think it’s the new Golden Zone theme song, folks! With that and “Lunatic Fringe,” I have songs for both of my columns!
* McCD: The overall presentation is rather dull, particularly the percussion. The way Tina’s voice is mixed in with the instruments, it’s barely audible over the fat and sluggish bass. I seem to recall this track sounding OK on FM radio, but it certainly isn’t impressive here.
* XRCD: The groan during the song’s opening jolted me out of my seat — it was so surprisingly realistic. The bottom-end is still a bit overly pronounced, but the vocals are really pulled forward, improving the overall sound considerably.

“Better Be Good To Me”
* McCD: This song sounds great. It’s dynamic, the vocals are just right, and the treble is actually decent for once.
* XRCD: The top-end is sharpened a bit, and the bass flabbiness gets slimmed down. It’s probably the best sonics to be found on the whole disc. While it wouldn’t be my first pick for showing off a high-end system, JVC’s remastering makes for an excellent presentation.
The XRCD packaging uses a unique cardboard case instead of the ubiquitous plastic box. It gives a really premium feel to the product. Unfortunately, the disc is held in a cardboard sleeve, and I absolutely hate that. Sliding a CD out of such a contraption sucks. To top it off, the oversize case won’t fit in many of the places I store my discs. Bah. I like the way it looks, the liner notes are complete, but I can’t stand the container it comes in. Oh well.
Overall, JVC’s release of Private Dancer offers an improvement in the sound quality of this popular disc. But being so close to the master tape lets you get very acquainted with its flaws. While this isn’t really the best recording to be put under the microscope of the XRCD process, for Tina Turner devotees it’s a welcome and worthwhile upgrade.

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Track Listing:
01. I Might Have Been Queen
02. What’s Love Got To Do With It
03. Show Some Respect
04. I Can’t Stand The Rain
05. Private Dancer
06. Let’s Stay Together
07. Better Be Good To Me
08. Steel Claw
09. Help
10. 1984
Total Time: 00:44:12
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