Workin' Together Ike

The most successful album ever released by Ike & Tina Turner, 1971's "Workin' Together" blends Ike Turner originals with covers of popular songs from the Beatles and of course the couple's signature tune and Grammy winner, "Proud Mary" by Creedence Clearwater Revival. "Workin' Together" remains Ike and Tina's highest-charting album, peaking at number 25 in the US, while their famous cover of "Proud Mary" sold over a million copies, reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2003.

For an act as iconic as Ike & Tina Turner, they sure haven't been given a CD compilation worthy of their stature. The main problem has always been that the duo, like many early R&B and rock & roll artists, recorded for a variety of labels, including many independents, which makes cross-licensing the key tracks a headache, and an expensive one at that. Time/Life's three-disc box The Ike & Tina Turner Story 1960-1975 comes close to being that long-awaited definitive set. It's close enough to satisfy, since it's certainly the easiest way to get the great majority of their best material, yet it falls just short of being the final word due to that long-standing problem of cross-licensing. Here, the blind spot is the mid- to late '60s, as this is missing the legendary Phil Spector production of "River Deep-Mountain High" and cuts that often show up on EMI-affiliated compilations, such as "Funkier Than a Mosquito's Tweeter" and other minor charting singles.

Ike & Tina Turner were an American musical duo consisting of husband and wife Ike Turner and Tina Turner.

Released just a few years after the epochal Phil Spector-produced River Deep Mountain High and close to six years before their breakup, Ike and Tina Turner's Hunter often gets lost in the duo's long and stormy existence. And while the album certainly is not on the same plane as the Spector album or later work like Workin' Together, Hunter still boasts several fine blues workouts in the inimitably electrifying Ike and Tina mode. The Stax sound figures prominently here, with producer Bob Krasnow (Captain Beefheart) keeping things nice and uncluttered to better frame Tina's intense vocal workouts. Maybe not the best first-disc choice, but still a worthwhile title for Ike and Tina fans.