Feel So Good

There are more live recordings of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue than of any other r&b outfit from the 1960s. Fortunately. Yes, I know, some of you will object that not all of what we hear on these recordings is worth listening, and I agree because Ike & Tina not only tended to repeat their show programme for years on end with little variation, but often they sound, if not plainly bored, purely professional. Well, true. Yet still, the recordings are as documents of their time of some historical value, for one. In addition, on several recordings we hear other singers as well who never became truly famous in their own right. And I do not speak about The Ikettes, who are famous after all, but of various other artists who toured with Ike & Tina.

United Superior LP # 7765 (1970)

One of the better known live recordings of the Ike & Tina Revue was made in 1964, in the Club Imperial & Harlem Club in St. Louis. Originally, this recording was released on Kent LP # 5014 (ST-514) »Ike & Tina Turner Revue Live«, and at the same time (that is, in 1964) in the UK on Ember LP # 3368. However, I possess this LP only as a re-issue, namely on United Artists / United Superior LP # 7765, released in 1970 (see cover). This re-issue, together with others of the same recording, was released with the title »Please, Please, Please«. (This title may, up to a point, be justified by the fact that the LP contains a 7-minutes rendering of »Please, Please, Please« by Tina, even though she is talking-preaching for the greater part; »Please, Please, Please« was out as a new Ike & Turner single in November '64, on Kent # 409. The song charted only locally, e.g. hitting the Top Ten in Memphis in December '64).

For almost half of the show, as released on this LP, we do not hear Tina Turner but other members of the Ike & Tina Revue. One song, »Feel So Good«, is performed by Jimmy Thomas who worked for many years with Ike Turner and in 1964 was part of the Ike & Tina Revue. In later years he made a solo career of sorts. The feelgood song »Feel So Good« is losely adapted from John Lee Hookers »Boogie Chillun« from 1948, and Hooker himself recorded several versions of it. The song was recorded by many others, not the least by Buddy Guy and Van Morrison. Jimmy Thomas's version is memorable in its own way, and I love how he kicks it off with the falsetto shriek »Hey!« ...

Jimmy Thomas: »Feel So Good« from the United Art./Superior LP 7765 (1970):