Tina Turner

Madacy's Tina Turner disc The Essential Collection is a strange package. From the title and the cover photo, it looks like a collection of latter-day solo Tina tracks. Flip it to the back cover and the wording changes to Ike & Tina Turner at their best. Inside are three discs. The first is a straight copy of EMI's 1992 collection called Proud Mary and Other Hits, a nine-song roundup of some of their best and funkiest songs like "Proud Mary" and "Sexy Ida" that were recorded in the early '70s for Liberty. The second two discs were first released as Love Sessions by Madacy in 2003 and are random collections of songs the duo released in the '70s as they went from label to label looking for a hit. Tina is in fine, rough and ready voice and Ike's productions are as weird and funky as ever (on the tracks that don't sound like re-recordings, that is, and there are a few). The tracks are a mix of covers of hits like "Living for the City," "Sugar, Sugar," "Let's Get It On," and "I've Been Loving You for Too Long" and Ike Turner originals like "Bold Soul Sister," "Five Long Years," "Bootsie Whitelaw," and "Golden Empire." Despite the misleading package, the music on these discs is highly entertaining. ~ Tim Sendra, All Music Guide