Proud Mary

Product Description:

PROUD MARY-THE BEST OF IKE & TINA contains songs from Ike & Tina's stint with the Minit, Liberty and Untied Artists labels.

Personnel includes: Ike Turner (vocals, guitar, bass); Tina Turner (vocals); The Ikettes (background vocals).

Producers include: Ike Turner, Juggy Murray, Mickey & Sylvia, Gerhard Augustin, Claude Williams.

Compilation producer: Ron Furmanek.

Includes liner notes by Al Quaglieri.

Tracks 1-7 are mono. Tracks 8-23 are stereo.

Digitally remastered by Larry Walsh (November 1990, Capitol Recording Studios).

This is part of the EMI Legends Of Rock & Roll series.

With one conspicuous exception, this one disc best-of is the definitive collection of this tempestuous duo's music. That exception, of course, is the cut of "River Deep, Mountain High," which isn't the epochal Phil Spector-produced single, but rather a live version. However, it's perfectly acceptable on its own terms, though purists will lament the lack of Spector's famous Wall Of Sound (what's here is more like a Small Chain Mail Fence Of Sound).

Everything else, however, is first-rate, from smolderingly raunchy early '60s singles like "It's Gonna Work Out Fine" (presented, thankfully, in the original mono), to Tina's autobiographical "Nutbush City Limits" from the early '70s. Essential stuff.