THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

485-Ike & Tina Turner-Nutbush City Limits.

1973-Number 4 single.

Best Bit-At 0.01. Nutbush isn’t a city, it’s actually a ‘little old town in Tennessee.’ Apparently, a ‘one horse town.’

Tina Turner (see also best songs 752 and 192) was born Anna Mae Bullock, on November 26th, 1939. in Brownsville, Tennessee. United States, she died at her home in Küsnacht, Switzerland, on May 24th, 2023, at the age of 83 following years of illness. In her 2018 memoir ‘My Love Story,’ she revealed that she had multiple life-threatening illnesses, including high blood pressure since 1978, which remained mostly untreated, and resulted in damage to her kidneys and eventual kidney failure. In 2013, three weeks after her wedding to the German born actor and producer Erwin Bach, she had a stroke and needed to learn to walk again, and in 2016, she was diagnosed with intestinal cancer.

Tina Turner was the youngest of three sisters, and during the war years the sisters were separated when their parents relocated to Knoxville, Tennessee, to work at a defence facility during World War II. Tina Turner went to stay with her strict, religious paternal grandparents who were deacon and deaconess at the ‘Woodlawn Missionary Baptist Church.’ After the war the family settled in ‘Nutbush,’ where Tina Turner grew up, attending school, and singing in the church choir at Nutbush’s ‘Spring Hill Baptist Church.’

Tina Turner is considered to be one of the best singers of all time, and her reinvention as a solo artist in the 1980’s, after her split from Ike Turner, (1931-2007) is cited as one of the greatest comebacks of all time. In January 1988 she performed in front of approximately 180,000 at the ‘Maracanã Stadium,’ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, setting a ‘Guinness World Record’ at the time for the largest paying concert attendance for a solo artist. She has sold anywhere between 100-150 million records worldwide, making her one of the best selling artists of all time, and she is the only artist to have had a top 40 hit single in the UK in seven different decades (1960’s-2020’s.)

The solo discography of Tina Turner includes nine studio Albums released between 1974-1999, and 72 singles released between 1964-2023, there is also one soundtrack Album, six official compilation Albums, and two live Albums available. In America on the Billboard Hot 100, 14 of her singles have reached the top 40, including her duet with Bryan Adams on ‘Its Only Love,’ (1985-Billboard Number 15 & UK Number 29) with ‘What’s Love Got to Do with It,’ in 1984, and the remix by Kygo in 2020, both reaching Number 1, while in the UK, Tina Turner has had 31 top 40 hit singles, with both ‘What’s Love Got to Do with It,’ (1984) and ‘We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome’) (1985) peaking the highest at Number 3.

‘Nutbush City Limits’ was the first of two singles released from Ike & Tina Turner’s 16th studio Album of the same name from November 1973, the song was written by Tina Turner, with the production being by Ike Turner. ‘Nutbush City Limits’ is semi-autobiographical, with Tina telling us about life growing up in a close knit community, as she reminisces about everyday life, and the places she knew as a child. When recalling memories of Nutbush, Tina has said that she didn’t turn any heads, as she was too skinny, and ‘Many women there had the goods.’ Tina Turner has recorded ‘Nutbush City Limits’ on two further occasions for single release. In 1988 she released a live version, which had been recorded on her 1986-1987 ‘Break Every Rule’ tour, but the single failed to chart. In 1991 for part of the promotion for her solo greatest hits Album ‘Simply the Best,’ the song was reworked in a 1990’s ‘Dance’ style, and reached Number 23 in the UK.

In Australia where the original version of ‘Nutbush City Limits’ peaked at Number 14 in 1973, it has become a staple of social occasions, and celebrations. The ‘Nutbush’ is a line dance that is performed by people of all ages and genders, with it’s own dance moves. On July 16th, 2019, a new record of 2,330 people performed the ‘Nutbush’ at the ‘Big Red Bash,’ breaking the previous years record. It had been rumoured for years that Marc Bolan, (1947-1977) (see also best songs 790-386 and 67) played the guitar on the original recording of ‘Nutbush City Limits,’ this was confirmed in 2007 by Bolan’s girlfriend Gloria Jones.

In 2002 a segment of Tennessee State Route 19, near Nutbush, was named ‘Tina Turner Highway’ in her honour. Other notable residents of Nutbush include the ‘Blues’ singers Hambone Willie Newbern, (1901-1965) Sleepy Joe Estes, (1899 or 1900-1877) and Noah Lewis (1891-1961.)

‘A church house, gin house, a school house, outhouse. On highway number nineteen, the people keep the city clean. They call it Nutbush, oh, Nutbush, call it Nutbush city limits.’