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Fact #156353

When:

Short story:

Tina Turner's new single Private Dancer, written by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, enters the UK singles charts.

Full article:

John Illsley (bassist, Dire Straits) : We were going to put Private Dancer on Love Over Gold, but in the end I don't think Mark really wanted to sing it; it's really a woman's song.

Mark Knopfler : I didn't write Private Dancer for Tina, I just wrote it, and it happened to work.

Roger Davies (manager, Tina Turner) : I´d called Mark who dug out this raggedy old lyric sheet, and the day before he was supposed to leave for New York, he went into AIR studios and put a vocal on his track, to give us the melody. I wanted to just use that track and put Tina´s vocal on it, but getting clearance from Dire Straits´ record company would´ve been too complicated. So Mark offered to let me use the band to record it.

John Illsley : Tina heard a very rough tape and loved it so much she asked if the band could play on it. It was tremendous fun. Tina came in and recorded it live in the studio with the band. She gave it three hundred per cent energy. You'd think she was in front of 20,000 people rather than four guys. We were putting down the tracks and she was goin' nuts.

Mark Knopfler : The only time I've ever written a song with somebody in mind was, after Tina did Private Dancer, I got asked to do another one for her next record, and I wrote a song called Overnight Sensation, which I was... thinking about her, and I don't think it worked that well. I think it's much better to just write a song.
(Source : not known)