Tina Turner in five covers

"Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You" (originally by Bob Dylan)

Tina Turner’s first solo album was a country covers album called Tina Turns the Country On! (my absolute favorite album title, tied with Bohemian Rap CD).  Country and R’n’B are diametrically opposed in many ways, but Tina Turner’s voice is so thoroughly soulful that it renders anything she sings a sort of R’n’B fusion. Tina Turner recorded several country songs, all transcending the genre simply because of her fabulous presence. 

"Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You" is a Bob Dylan song from his first country album, Nashville Skyline. Some Dylan detractors say he writes song skeletons, bare-bones lyrics, and melodies, waiting to be fleshed out by better musicians; while no one denies that his lyrics are poetry, they need to be sung by other people, the argument goes. As a Dylan fanatic, I disagree, but I get it, and some Dylan covers do make this case rather convincingly. Tina Turner’s version is sultry and is imbued with longing, her voice cracking with emotion throughout. Though Dylan wrote plenty of love songs (the one area of songwriting where Dylan is underrated), no Bob Dylan song will ever be described as ‘sexy’ outside the context of this one fantastic cover.