Story of the song: What’s Love Got To Do With It by Tina Turner

From The Independent archive: Robert Webb on ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’ by Tina Turner

Tina Turner performing in Brighton in 1985 (Getty)

Graham Lyle, once of the Seventies folk-blues band McGuinness Flint and the soft rock duo Gallagher & Lyle, is a pivotal (if unlikely) figure in the revival of Tina Turner's career. Turner thought her days as a chart-topper were over when Capitol Records told her they would not be renewing her contract. She had resumed recording, following an acrimonious divorce from her husband, Ike, but things had been going slowly. Then, in 1984, she consolidated her comeback with the album Private Dancer. It included one song by the Scottish-born Lyle and his fellow writer Terry Britten which reversed Turner's fortunes in the Eighties.

“What's Love Got to do With It?” was the first song Lyle and Britten wrote together. “I was on my way over to Terry's and the title came into my head,” says Lyle. “I kept it in my pocket, so to speak.” The pair sat down to write, and hit on something just as they were ready to call it a day. “The rhythm was loosely based on a Bob Marley riff and the chorus just fitted with my title,” says Lyle. “I went home and was so excited.”

Lyle worked on the lyrics and read them down the phone to Britten, who sang them back. With no one in mind, they delivered a demo to their publishers. “Within two weeks four or five acts were interested, and Tina was one of the names,” says Lyle. “We knew instantly that was the right choice: we could hear her voice on it.”

In fact, Turner didn't care much for it when she first heard the demo. “I just didn't like it. What am I going to do with this song?” she said. Britten ran through the melody on guitar. “I still thought it was odd,” she said. Then Lyle's lyrics hit home: “But what has love got to do with it? All right!” She cut the vocal track one Sunday, with Britten producing. “Turner sang like she was on stage in front of 25,000 people, belting it for all she was worth,” recalled the engineer, John Hudson.

The song has since lent its title to a Turner biopic and has been covered by countless artists. “There are even seven or eight rap versions,” says Lyle.