Credit: Far Out / Spotify
Sun 30 August 2026 10:53, UK
To the casual fan, Tina Turner is simply a name that always was and always will be. Her stature is unquestionable, right? Well, that hasn’t always been the case.
In 1976, she split with her husband, Ike Turner, following a violent argument that they had together on tour. This wasn’t a one-off occasion, either. The two had a horribly tumultuous relationship, one that saw Tina suffer from physical, emotional and financial abuse. When her relationship ended, her career also seemed to tank, as the albums she was putting out were flopping and she was left without a record label.
Turner managed to massively defy the odds, though. While a lot of people might have seen the dwindling numbers as a sign to call it a day, Turner took a brief pause and then came back with one of the best records of her career. The 1984 album Private Dancer is pretty widely considered one of the greatest comeback albums of all time, and when you listen to some of the smash hit songs that were on it, such as ‘What’s Love Got to Do With It’ and ‘Better Be Good to Me’, you can understand why.
Despite Turner already having a number of great albums under her belt, she was essentially faced with the challenge of the difficult second album once again. A lot of people thought her career might have been over, and she proved them wrong, but could she keep doing as much? It turned out yes, as her next record, Break Every Rule, was equally a success.
You might not think that Tina Turner and Phil Collins would be much of a musical match, but when they teamed up on the album’s opener, pretty wonderful things happened. Phil Collins has always had a pretty good knowledge of what makes a song tick. This stems all the way back to his time in Genesis, as when he first joined that band, he knew he had walked into something pretty damn special.
He said that the spirit of the band was Tony, Mike and Peter, and he didn’t want to potentially ruin the good thing that they had together. As such, he started focusing on just arranging songs, attempting to understand the emotion and theme surrounding a piece of music and working out what he could move around to ensure the vision is seen to the best of the band’s ability.
Having such a positive outlook on the construction of a song meant that Collins was the perfect writing partner, even when it came to working with artists you might not originally be able to visualise him with. Tina Turner is a great example of that. On the opening song of her Break Every Rule album, Turner and Collins come together to create a fun-sounding, glitzy pop hit. The whole thing is quintessential ‘80s, and still holds up as a great song to this day.
Further reading: From The Vault
So, the music is good, but what theme did the two of them choose to write about? Well, with ‘Typical Male’, Turner decided to take a moment and chastise what dating was like in your 40s. The narrative of the track surrounds a protagonist who starts going out with a lawyer and becomes absolutely smitten with him. All seems to be going well, but then the honeymoon period is over, and she realises that what she thought was an angel sent from heaven turns out to be the same as all the other blokes out there. It seems fitting that Turner, enjoying the highs of a comeback, decided to take love to task in this kind of manner.
Who would have thought that such an unlikely duo would be able to join forces and write what is arguably one of the most underappreciated pop songs of the ‘80s. This was Turner during a creative and career high, as she regained momentum following what was a pretty horrendous downward trajectory.
