Watch Ike & Tina Turner’s Vintage 1970 Performance On ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’
Known as The Ike and Tina Turner Revue at this point in their career, the duo and their band were big stars on the soul circuit as the hit the ‘Sullivan’ stage.
Ike & Tina Turner star in a newly-shared clip from the archives of The Ed Sullivan Show, filmed in January 1970. You can watch the footage of them performing “Proud Mary” and “Bold Soul Sister” below.
Known as The Ike and Tina Turner Revue at this point in their turbulent career, the duo and their band were big stars on the soul circuit on the cusp of the 1970s. By the time they reached The Ed Sullivan Show, they had three Top 40 hits and were very hot property.
On January 11 1970, the Turners took over the Sullivan stage. Tina strutted out in a short, gold fringed dress, while The Ikettes, three girls in matching hot pink dresses, sang and danced behind her. Ike, in a hip lavender suit, stood in back, jammed on the guitar and kept an eye on things.
“Proud Mary” (written by John Fogerty and originally recorded by Creedence Clearwater Revival) had never sounded so funky. It’s a classic performance that starts out “nice and easy”, with Ike slowly singing “ro-lling on the rii-vaah”. But then the music picks up and they get to the “rough part” Tina warns us about during the intro. “Proud Mary” would become Ike & Tina Turner’s biggest success, reaching No.4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and winning them a Grammy Award.
After this three and a half minute tornado, The Revue quickly switched gears and did a soulful rendition of a song Ike wrote, “Bold Soul Sister.” Then Ed bid them farewell and told them he’d see them at the opening of the Las Vegas International Hotel (now the Las Vegas Hilton), bringing the curtain down on a classic performance.
Elsewhere in Ed Sullivan news, the show’s official YouTube channel recently reached a new milestone, crossing the threshold of 250 million views of its peerless archive.
The June 2020 digital rights agreement between UMe and SOFA Entertainment Inc. made countless rare performances available to view for free from the beloved show’s 23-year history in primetime on CBS. The deal has not only brought these stunning clips to a new worldwide audience, as well as those who saw them on their initial broadcast, but won praise for its contribution in illustrating the history of popular culture across every imaginable genre. The full library contains 1,000 hours of footage and over 10,000 performances.
Bruce Resnikoff, UMe President & CEO, commented: “UMe and SOFA Entertainment’s goal was to bring the incredible performances from The Ed Sullivan Show to the streaming era and new audiences. It is extremely gratifying to have reached a milestone of 250 million views on YouTube as a result of our collaboration.”
