Rough

Rough is Tina Turner's third solo album, released in September 1978 on the EMI Music label in the UK, Ariola Records in West Germany and United Artists in the U.S. This was the first solo album she recorded without Ike Turner. Her first two solo albums Tina Turns the Country On (1974) and Acid Queen (1975) were both recorded while she was still married to Turner and a member of the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, Rough can therefore be said to be her first proper solo album. The divorce proceedings between the couple finally ended in 1978, the same year as Rough was released, leaving Tina penniless - but with the legal right to use the stage name Tina Turner. The album was made up of rock songs, instead of the soul and R&B music that she typically performed with the revue. But the album was recorded at the height of the disco era and so shows influences from that genre. The opening track, "Fruits of the Night", for example, was co-written by Giorgio Moroder's longtime collaborator Pete Bellotte. The rock'n'roll number "Fire Down Below", a Bob Seger cover, was later recorded by Bette Midler for the 1979 movie The Rose. The album also includes Turner's first cover version of Elton John's "The Bitch Is Back", which she re-recorded in 1991 for the tribute album Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin. Rough and its four singles, "Viva La Money", "Root Toot, Undisputable Rock & Roller", "Sometimes When We Touch" - a cover of Dan Hill's ballad - and "Night Time Is the Right Time", all met with fairly limited commercial success on their release. But, just like the preceding Acid Queen and the follow-up Love Explosion, the album was a clear indication of the direction where Turner wanted to take her solo career, combining rock 'n roll with influences from contemporary pop and dance music.