The Wild Reed: Remembering Tina’s Foreign Affair

Friday, October 13, 2023

Remembering Tina’s Foreign Affair

Since her passing on May 24, I've been exploring and enjoying the music of Tina Turner (1939-2023), the “Queen of Rock ’n’ Roll.”

I noted in a previous post that although I wasn’t what you’d call a dedicated follower of Tina Turner’s career during her lifetime, I did see her in concert at the Sydney Entertainment Centre in December 1985. She was in Australia as part of her Private Dancer Tour. Her 1984 album Private Dancer, considered her big “comeback” album, was a favorite of mine in the mid-1980s.

For reasons I can’t explain, I didn’t really follow her post-Private Dancer career, despite it being an extremely successful one, both commercially and artistically. That's all changed now, however, as I continue to delve into Tina’s wonderful musical legacy. I’ve bought all her post-Private Dancer studio albums on CD – Break Every Rule (1986), Foreign Affair (1989), Wildest Dreams (1996), and Twenty Four Seven (1999).

I’ve also been enjoying the soundtrack album, What’s Love Got to Do With It (1993) and various compilation albums, including Simply the Best (1991), the 2-CD Tina: All the Best (2004), and the 3-CD Tina: The Platinum Collection (2009).

I’ve also greatly enjoyed (and learned a lot from) both the 2021 HBO documentary, Tina and Tina’s own 2018 memoir, A Love Story.

This evening for music night at The Wild Reed I share the music video for “Look Me in the Heart,” one of my favorite tracks from Tina’s 1989 album, Foreign Affair. It’s followed by an insightful review of Foreign Affair by Matthew Hocter, first published in 2019 in celebration of the album’s 30th anniversary. Enjoy!

The ’80s most definitely belonged to Tina Turner. She kicked off her decade of recording with the 1984 release of Private Dancer, which as any Turner fan will know, solidified the singer as not only legendary, but also placed the title and crown of “Queen of Rock & Roll” firmly on the singer’s head, confirmed yet again with album sales in excess of 20 million copies. A hard act to follow, but Turner was able to do it with Break Every Rule (1986) and of course, the decade-concluding Foreign Affair (1989).

In fact, it’s Turner’s seventh studio album that, for many, is likely one of those albums that you’ve heard of, but just why you’ve heard of it remains somewhat of a musical mystery. The irony in this, is that it happens to be home to one of Turner’s most recognizable songs, the global smash hit cover of Bonnie Tyler’s “The Best,” which also happened to be the album’s lead single and a song that would go on to help Foreign Affair achieve sales in excess of 6 million copies globally.

Foreign Affair is, in essence, an album deeply rooted in adult contemporary, a genre that Turner has been associated with for the majority of her solo career. “Steamy Windows,” the album’s GRAMMY nominated third single, is the epitome of said genre and in true Turner style, incorporates elements of the blues and a whole lot of rock. That said, the album also moves into other areas and delivers some solid club tracks like “I Don’t Wanna Lose You” and the beautifully uplifting love song “Falling Like Rain.”

With a solid dosage of ballads like “Ask Me How I Feel” and “Be Tender With Me Baby,” it would be hard to ignore the incredible production value on this album from the late and legendary musician and record producer, Dan Hartman. Hartman not only produced most of the entire 12-track album (he also played various instruments on many of the tracks and even provided backing vocals on “The Best” and “Look Me In The Heart”), but he also penned “Not Enough Romance.”

One track that truly stands out for me is the bluesy and incredibly sensual “Undercover Agent For The Blues,” a song that not only showcases Turner’s Tennessee roots, but reminds the listener that for all the “soft rock” adult contemporary that mostly fills this album, Turner is essentially at her core, pure rock & soul. Few artists have been able to achieve this ability to straddle the very grey area of crossover appeal versus musical core – a tricky balancing act that Turner not only managed to achieve on this album, but has maintained throughout her career, pre- and post-Foreign Affair.

Although Foreign Affair failed to enter the top 30 in the U.S, it was a worldwide hit, especially in Europe where the album spawned five singles and entered numerous charts at the #1 position. The UK alone accounted for 1.5 million sales, allowing Turner to realize that her music was and is not limited solely to the US market.