river deep, mountain high

 

------------------- [excerpt from I, Tina - 1986, HarperCollins] -----------------------

[1966]

        "River Deep-Mountain High" climbed to number eighty-eight in the pop charts in the first week of June, then tumbled back down. ...

        While the song misfired in the States, it created a sensation across the Atlantic, rocketing to number three on the British charts in mid-June and remaining in the Top 50 for thirteen weeks.  

George Harrison, guitarist with the then-regnant Beatles, was quoted as calling it "a perfect record from start to finish - you couldn't improve on it."  

America had deep-sixed the single, and here were the Brits, waxing ecstatic....

        "River Deep" 's reception in Britain...was no mystery, however.  The new breed of British rock bands that ruled the charts was fascinated by black American music.  Lacking a native equivalent of blues and R & B, the British groups and their audiences had become connoisseurs of the American scene.  

Such pop-oriented acts as the Beatles and Manfred Mann and Herman's Hermits reveled in covering black girl-group hits.  Grittier stuff became the province of the more blues-oriented Yardbirds, Animals, and, especially, the Rolling Stones....

        The Stones were already well acquainted with the work of Ike and Tina Turner by the time "River Deep" arrived.  As it happened, they were then gearing up for a fall tour of the U.K.  Why not, they decided, invite the Ike and Tina Turner Revue along?

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