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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Whitman's Sampler Delight Covering the Broad Scope of Turner's Fifty-Year Career, October 22, 2008
For the first time, I had the bucket-list pleasure of seeing Tina Turner perform live this past Sunday at San Jose's HP Pavilion. For a woman approaching her 69th birthday and celebrating her fiftieth anniversary as a performer, she is a genuine force of nature - still as striking as ever and showing even more passion with her familiar repertoire. In conjunction with Turner's all-stops-pulled tour, Capitol has released yet another greatest hits compilation but this time following the order of the concert set list. Your appetite for this release will depend on how many of the other collections you own. There are several on the market already - 1991's Simply the Best, 1993's What's Love Got To Do With It (the soundtrack to her biopic), 2005's All the Best: The Hits - not including all the live recordings on CD and DVD and her legendary work with her ex-husband Ike. However, if you have not been a fervent follower since her 1984 breakout, Private Dancer, this is an especially worthwhile purchase.
There are eighteen tracks in all that cover the broad scope of Turner's career. Her years as the distaff half of Ike & Tina Turner are book-ended by the Phil Spector-produced "River Deep, Mountain High" from 1966 with his signature Wall of Sound in full force, and the autobiographical "Nutbush City Limits" replete with Memphis-style horns from 1971. Forget the covers by Celine Dion and Bob Seger, as both are indisputably her classics. However, Turner's signature song, as we all know, is "Proud Mary". Although for me, it always loses something without Turner's familiar choreography in view, she transforms the original by Creedence Clearwater Revival with the slow ("nice and easy") opening, the spoken-word intro, and the high-kicking, horn-blasting choruses. The comparatively polished version presented here is the one she recorded for the soundtrack of her 1993 biopic.
1989's Foreign Affair is well represented with the twangy power rocker "Steamy Windows" (the opening song of the concert) and her synth-heavy anthem, "(Simply) the Best". The percolating "What You Get is What You See" comes from 1986's Break Every Rule. But it's no surprise that "Private Dancer" gets the lion's share of the tracks here - the seductive title track, the underrated rocker "Better Be Good to Me", and of course, her Euro-infused comeback, "What's Love Got to Do With It?". There are four movie songs, two of which Turner played roles onscreen - as the drug-dealing Acid Queen announcing her arrival with Pete Townshend's eponymous rocker from the Who's groundbreaking rock opera, 1975's Tommy, and as Aunt Entity, the foreboding ruler of Bartertown, in 1985's post-apocalyptic Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, from which she uncharacteristically sings the poignant anti-war ballad, "We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)".
The other two movie songs are the gently loping "I Don't Wanna Fight", the theme from her 1993 biopic, and the disappointing U2-penned GoldenEye, a typical James Bond theme from 1995 that sounds like it was written in the 1960's for Shirley Bassey. Three live performances are gratefully included here as well, the first two from her 1999 Amsterdam concert. Al Green's "Let's Get Together" gets a surprisingly churchy treatment with an organ-dominated opening, but Turner eventually sidles the song into its familiar clubby groove. With the Billy Preston-like keyboard pounding, Ann Peebles' "I Can't Stand the Rain" takes on a roof-raising gospel flavor. Taken from a 1986 concert at London's Camden Palace, her version of "Addicted to Love" doesn't have the curled irony of Robert Palmer's original version, but it captures the beat-heavy bombast and Turner wails mightily on the chorus.
The new tracks, both penned by Pat Monahan of the rock band Train and Robbie Williams' longtime producer Guy Chambers, show her voice undiminished in 2008. "It Would Be a Crime" scoots by with an inescapably catchy techno-beat, while "I'm Ready" is a more programmatic rocker hamstrung somewhat by the overly repetitive chorus. I truly hope these tracks indicate the release of a long-rumored album of new material. For those who are lucky enough to attend her current concert tour, you will find the following songs missing from this compilation: "Typical Male", her bluesy version of the Beatles' "Help!", "Undercover Agent for the Blues", the Rolling Stones medley of "Jumping Jack Flash" and "It's Only Rock `n' Roll", and her final encore, "Be Tender with Me Baby". So consider this album not a definitive collection but more of a nice sampler for those of us in awe of her. I believe that would be the majority of us.
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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
ANOTHER Greatest Hits CD Needs More Rarities. , October 1, 2008
When I saw that Tina was set to tour again, my hope was that there would be a new album of songs. My fear was that Capitol would do yet another greatest hits CD. That's what we got here. It's good for the 2 new songs, I'M READY , which rocks, and IT WOULD BE A CRIME, which is good too. As for the other added bonus type tracks not on any other Tina CD, there are 2 nicely rearranged live in concert versions from 1999 of LET'S STAY TOGETHER and I CAN'T STAND THE RAIN that are a pleasant surprise to hear this way. And lo and behold, they dug up a real rarity, the soundtrack version from the film " TOMMY " of Tina's version of THE ACID QUEEN, which is something new to have on a Tina hits CD [ and a different version than on her " ACID QUEEN " 1975 solo album ].
But overall, I wish that this was a RARITIES release. What's the point with dragging up the hits yet again? It was done just a couple years ago with the far superior ALL THE BEST, then the one disc ALL THE BEST-THE HITS. And don't forget her best-selling SIMPLY THE BEST from 1991, the McDonalds promotion CD , GREATEST HITS from 1994, and the box set SIXTIES TO NINETIES. Geez, the greatest hits have been done to death! And still ONE OF THE LIVING from " MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME " has not made any of these greatest hits CD's. It charted at #15, the video was shown all over the place, and yet it's only on the soundtrack CD, and the scarce promotional 1993 Tina hits compilation PLAY THIS IN STORE. Tina must really hate ONE OF THE LIVING as it has not been on any CD since it's original release. Too bad, as it's a great recording that won her a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance, Female.
I would have loved a RARITIES CD, and it would have collected the many non-LP tracks, B-sides, and soundtrack songs. Here's what I would have loved to have seen : THE GAME OF LOVE [ with Santana ], TAKE ME TO THE RIVER, HAVIN' A PARTY, STRONGER THAN THE WIND, BOLD AND RECKLESS, HE LIVES IN YOU, BABY I'M A STAR, LOVE IS A BEAUTIFUL THING, DO SOMETHING, SHAKE A TAIL FEATHER, TINA'S WISH, BREAK EVERY RULE [ Single Remix ], and AFTERGLOW [ Remix ]. Such a selection of songs would have been new to many people, and would have collected all of these odds and ends into a really nice collection. If we couldn't have had a whole new album of songs, that would have been the next best thing. Oh well, just my view that's it's the hits yet again, with 2 new songs, and a few rarities. This could have been a much better CD with more research and some ideas than recycling the hits again. I read that Tina's set list for the new tour basically follows the order of the tracks on this CD. So, it's like a " souvenir " of the concert.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
She's simply the best!, January 6, 2009
Tina Turner is simply THE BEST!! This cd has every song you want to hear. She never ceases to amaze me. It is incredible that she is still performing and totally engages the crowd when she does her show. This cd will not disappoint.
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by Tina Turner 
