May 25, 2023
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By “Huckabee” pop culture guru Pat Reeder (http://www.hollywoodhifi.com)
It is my sad duty to report that music legend Tina Turner passed away peacefully at her home in Switzerland Wednesday at 83. Here are two very extensive obituaries from Variety and Rolling Stone.
https://variety.com/2023/
https://www.rollingstone.com/
Variety also helpfully compiled some of her best songs…
https://variety.com/2023/
…And best performances on TV.
I always try to include some piece of info you might not know, but that’s difficult with Tina Turner. She was such a huge star for so long, and her life was such an open book (literally: her autobiography “I, Tina” was made into the hit movie, “What’s Love Got To Do With It?”), and the obituaries on her so comprehensive, that there isn’t much I can say that might surprise you. Well, other than that there were long stretches of her career when she was struggling to make money, performing in small clubs and considered washed up by the morons who run the music industry.
Also, while most consider the Ike & Tina recording of “River Deep, Mountain High” to be an all-time classic, when it came out in 1966, it was branded an expensive flop. Producer Phil Spector wanted it to be the ultimate example of his “Wall of Sound” and he threw everything but the kitchen sink into the mix, yet it only reached #88 on the US charts. Over three decades later, it was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
I would also be remiss not to mention the passing last Friday of sports icon and movie star, Jim Brown.
https://theathletic.com/
That link has a very thorough recounting of his life, both the extraordinary highs and the lows. As for things you might not know, he was not only possibly the greatest NFL player of all time, but in college, he also competed in basketball, track and lacrosse, and might be the best lacrosse player ever as well. He’s the only person who’s in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the College Football Hall of Fame, and the Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
And since my specialty is celebrity records, I’ll mention that while he never sang on record that I know of, a collection of his speeches was released on LP in 1967. It was called “Jim Brown Tells It Like It Is,” and you can listen to the whole thing on YouTube now. Rest in peace to them both.
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