Workin' Together [LP]

by Ike & Tina Turner

Overview

Released early in 1971, a few months after Come Together, their first album for Liberty Records, Workin' Together was the first genuine hit album Ike & Tina had in years; actually, it was their biggest ever, working its way into Billboard's Top 25 and spending 38 weeks on the charts. They never had a bigger hit (the closest was their Blue Thumb release, Outta Season, which peaked at 91), and, in many ways, they didn't make a better album. After all, their classic '60s sides were just that -- sides of a single, not an album. Even though it doesn't boast the sustained vision of such contemporaries as, say, Marvin Gaye and Al Green, Workin' Together feels like a proper album, where many of the buried album tracks are as strong as the singles. Like its predecessor, it relies a bit too much on contemporary covers, which isn't bad when it's the perennial "Proud Mary," since it deftly reinterprets the original, but readings of the Beatles' "Get Back" and "Let It Be," while not bad, are a little bit too pedestrian. Fortunately, they're entirely listenable and they're the only slow moments, outweighed by songs that crackle with style and passion. Nowhere is this truer than on the opening title track, a mid-tempo groover (written by Eki Renrut, Ike's brilliant inverted alias) powered by a soulful chorus and a guitar line that plays like a mutated version of Dylan's "I Want You" riff. Then, there's the terrific Stax/Volt stomper "(Long As I Can) Get You When I Want You," possibly the highlight on the record. Though they cut a couple of classics over the next few years, most notably "Nutbush City Limits," the duo never topped this, possibly the best proper album they ever cut. [Workin' Together was re-released on LP in 2016.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	03/25/2016
Label:	Capitol
UPC:	0602547668318
Rank:	66317

Tracks

Disc 1

1. Workin' Together
2. (As Long as I Can) Get You When I Want You [Remastered Version]
3. Get Back
4. The Way You Love Me [Remastered Version]
5. You Can Have It [Remastered Version]
6. Game of Love [Remastered Version]

Disc 2

7. Funkier Than a Mosquita's Tweeter [Remastered Version]
8. Ooh Poo Pah Doo [Remastered Version]
9. Proud Mary
10. Goodbye So Long [Remastered Version]
11. Let It Be [Remastered Version]

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Ike & Tina Turner   Primary Artist
Ike Turner   Multi Instruments,Vocals
The Ikettes   Vocals (Background)
Kings of Rhythm   Multi Instruments
Tina Turner   Lead Vocals

Technical Credits

Eddie Wilner   Reissue Producer
Ike Turner   Composer,Producer
John Fogerty   Composer
John Lennon   Composer
Raymond Moore   Composer
Tina Turner   Composer
Aillene Bullock   Composer
Brent Maher   Engineer
George Jackson   Composer
Jimmy Starr   Remastering
Eki Renrut   Composer
Stephen Thomas Erlewine   Liner Notes
Jessie Hill   Composer
Paul McCartney   Composer