https://www.npr.org/2023/05/27/ [login to see] /opinion-life-lessons-from-tina-turner
By the time Tina Turner released her hit song "What's Love Got to Do With It" in 1984, she had already seen her career rise and fall.
The song had been written by two British guys, Terry Britten and Graham Lyle, who offered it to Cliff Richard, the Brit rock and roller, who turned it down. A few more singers, including Donna Summer, reportedly considered it for a while. Maybe they found the lyrics a little hard to put across:
"What's love got to do, got to do with it?" seems to ask, "Am I feeling love—or something dangerous? Will I just get hurt again? What does love actually do for anyone, anyway?"
As it's so piercingly phrased, and left to hang in our minds: "Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken?"
By this time Tina Turner was 44 years old. She had been playing gigs on what used to be known as a "nostalgia circuit," where she sang old hits in casinos and county fairs.