Music

Not surprisingly, music—particularly black music—is a major theme in the life story of Tina Turner. As with many Rhythm and Blues singers, Tina's first experience with music is at church. At ten years of age, she is the only child who is asked to be in the church choir. When she visits her parents while they're working in Knoxville, strangers pay her quarters and half-dollars to hear her sing. Tina and her young friends sneak in the lounges her parents frequent and enjoy the honky-tonk music played there.

After World War II, a new kind of music begins to emerge—black jazz and rhythm and blues bands are making their mark. In preceding years, the big swing bands like Glenn Miller were the rage. But the black combos—the smaller, stripped-down version of the big band like Count Basie and Duke Ellington...