Again, I had no concept of any of the songs being covers - it was just a great album, and a really core part of my early childhood. I was musically oriented at a very young age, and my parents used to bring me to Golden Discs (Irish record chain) regularly and let me pick out singles - when they were 79p! Albums were usually gifts or procured with record tokens received as birthday or Christmas gifts (remember those?!), so I had the Private Dancer album very soon after it came out. But What's Love Got To Do With It was HUGE and I had the 45, and then got the album when it came out. I vaguely remember Let's Stay Together coming out and being a relative success (although for me, that may have much more to do with it being on the first Now That's What I Call Music compilation rather than a true memory of it in on the radio, etc.). I also didn't have any real concept of age being an issue or that her comeback was an unusual thing - she was just one of my favorite singers. I was a young'un when Private Dancer and the singles came out, so I had no prior knowledge of Tina Turner.

I'm also a big fan of Don't Rush The Good Things and When I Was Young - was glad they started getting renewed exposure on the rereleases since I played those b-sides a lot in 1984! I didn't have the other 45s so didn't have any connection to the other b-sides. I chose Show Some Respect and 1984 - looks like we're all mostly in agreement over the first few tracks to go, although I don't actually dislike any songs on the album. This one's going to get very difficult very quickly. I suppose I labelled it a mixed bag, which it probably is. So, being as I bought 4 albums in one day I can’t really remember what my first impressions of Private Dancer were. I’ve actually bought 3 copies of Private Dancer. Although it has to be said that I purchased them all on CD over the years so they must have been growers. I think the one I liked best was Into The Gap. After playing them all I decided that taking chances wasn’t my thing. They were Rod Stewart’s Camouflage, Sade’s Diamond Life and Into The Gap by the Thompson Twins. All from people l hadn’t bought LPs by before. You can tell the album is cobbled together from various sources, but it’s better than it needed to be. Not that Tina’s version is particularly bad. The latter is a song I just never cared for.

It’s hard to muck the former up, but Tina has a damn good try.

Tina mom of two private