Help is on its way… Did Tina Turner rip off John Farnham?
Jeff Jenkins
STACK Writer
The long-awaited 40th anniversary edition of Tina Turner’s comeback classic 'Private Dancer' has finally been released.
After going through a nasty divorce, the legendary singer was in debt. She needed help and she turned to Australian manager Roger Davies.
The 1984 album resurrected Tina’s career, selling 12 million copies and winning four Grammys.
Private Dancer was an ’80s comeback to rival Whispering Jack.
Six years before that John Farnham blockbuster, the Aussie icon released the Uncovered album, which featured his take on a Beatles classic.
“People always talk about Whispering Jack and You’re the Voice, but I think what changed things was the single Help,” Farnham wrote in his recent autobiography The Voice Inside. “That’s what really got me started again. And it’s ironic because, at that time, what I needed more than anything was help.
“Someone once told me that Paul McCartney heard my version of Help and said he liked it. I never heard definitively whether this was true or not, but I hope he liked it.”
Farnham’s version of Help was a Top 10 hit in Australia.
When the singer was trying to resurrect his career, he visited Roger Davies in Los Angeles. The meeting did not go well.
“When I walked into his office, he took one look at me, put his boots up on the desk, got out a toothpick and then started cleaning his teeth,” Farnham recalls. “I played him my demo tape, including my version of Help. Afterward, he said, ‘Now, what can we do about making you a star?’ He made me feel even smaller than I already felt. I looked at him, thought about his question for a moment then responded, ‘Nah, nothing. I don’t think you can help me.’”
A few years later, Tina Turner released her version of Help, which was issued as a single and featured on the international edition of the Private Dancer album and is now on the 40th anniversary edition.
Many critics noted the similarities between the two covers.
“I heard she was interviewed on radio and asked whether she got her inspiration from my version,” Farnham notes. “She denied ever hearing it.”
Farnham’s version of Help can now be found on his best-of collection One Voice: The Greatest Hits.
40 years of Private Dancer
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