Tina Turner, Singer And Plymouth Laser Spokesperson, Dies At 83

Sad news out of the entertainment industry Wednesday after Tina Turner, the fantastic, soulful American singer and former Plymouth-brand spokesperson, passed away at her home in Küsnacht, Switzerland after several years of failing health following a stroke.

The Best Full-Size Pickup Line Goes To…. | Jalopinions

Turner is best known for her incredible voice, exploding on to the music scene in the late ’50s and early ’60s with her husband Ike Turner’s band. She quickly became the star attraction, however, from a New York Times’ obituary:

“In the context of today’s show business, Tina Turner must be the most sensational professional onstage,” Ralph J. Gleason, the influential jazz and pop critic for The San Francisco Chronicle, wrote in a review of a Rolling Stones concert in Oakland in November 1969. “She comes on like a hurricane. She dances and twists and shakes and sings and the impact is instant and total.”

But if the Ike and Tina Turner Revue was a success, the Ike and Tina Turner marriage was not. Mr. Turner was abusive. After she escaped the marriage in her 30s, her career faltered.But her solo album “Private Dancer,” released in 1984, returned her to the spotlight — and lifted her into the pop stratosphere.

Working with younger songwriters, and backed by a smooth, synthesized sound that provided a lustrous wrapping for her raw, urgent vocals, she delivered three mammoth hits: the title song, written by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits; “Better Be Good to Me”; and “What’s Love Got to Do With It.”

Any child of the ’80s or ’90s knows Turner’s hits by heart. They are soulful ballads still sung with feeling at karaoke bars and post-breakup girls’ nights across the county. After successfully reinventing her career at 45 years old, winning four Grammys in 1985, starring in several films and playing sold out stadium shows around the world, Turner was ready for her biggest break ever: Spokesperson of the Plymouth Laser.