With Break Every Rule reached Tina for the first time #1 on the German album charts and remained there for 9 weeks. The album is more pop orientated than its predecessor and includes no cover versions. All first five songs were written and produced by Graham Lyle and Terry Britten, the team behind the 1984 hit single What's Love Got To Do With It. Tina performed most of the songs live at her Break Every Rule Tour, available on the album Live In Europe from 1988.
Photographer: Herb Ritts
Design: Stylorouge
Release: September 05, 1986
Label: Capitol / EMI
Format: Vinyl / CD / Cassette / Cartridge / Digital
Charts: Germany: #1 / UK: #2 / Europe: #2 / USA: #4 / #1 in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland / Australia: #11
Certifications: UK: 1x Platinum / Germany: 3x Gold, 2x Platinum / USA: 1x Gold, 1x Platinum
Grammy: Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for „Back Where You Started“ (1987)
A very concentrated and carefully orchestrated European marketing campaign on Tina Turner's new album Break Every Rule should result in massive media and consumer response. The extensive campaign is scheduled to last till next July, most probably the closing date of a European tour. "Although everything is still subject to confirmation, we will definitely get Tina into Europe next year," explains Heinz Henn, director European operations Capitol / EMI America / Manhattan. "We have set up an elaborate campaign in which everything, from single release dates and video scripts till marketing and promotours has been set up well in advance. And although release dates may vary from country to country, depending on the individual market needs, marketing and merchandising materials are embodied in a year long strategy."
Currently Tina is in the middle of an extensive promotion tour through Europe, which started September 10th in London for a Top Of The Pops recording. Further promotion work will bring her to Amsterdam (September 16th, recording for Countdown), Zurich (September 19th, Musicland). Copenhagen (September 21, for a tv recording with Joergen Mylius), a three day stint in Madrid (September 22-24, doing three tv shows: Tocata, Premios Amigo and Informe Semanal), Paris (September 25-26, Champs Elysees and the Patrick Sabatier Show), Munich (September 27, Wetten Dass?), Vienna the next day for three tv shows (Music Scene, Ohne Maulkorb, Die Grossen 10), Brussels on September 29 for Bingo, October 4-5 in Rome for Fantastico and Dominica In, Amsterdam for the Dutch record event Platen 10-daagse on October 7th, Munich (October 18 for Na Sowas and finishing in Stockholm (October 29 for Jacob's Stege). Two other European promotion tours will follow.
For Tina's new album, Grammy winning songwriters Terry Britten and Graham Lyle have contributed five tracks including
"Typical Male, "What You Get Is What You See, "Two People", "Afterglow" (featuring Steve Winwood on syntheziser) and "Till The Right Man Comes Along". Other contributing songwriters include Bryan Adams with Jim Vallance ("Back Where You Started“), David Bowie („Girls"). Paul Brady ("Paradise Is Here") and Mark Knopfler ("Overnight Sensation"). Producers include Terry Britten, Bryan Adams, Bob Clearmountain, Rupert Hine and Mark Knopfler.
An impressive list of special merchandising material has been developed, tailored to suit the needs of each individual country. The company did an extensive advertising teaser campaign to anticipate the album release last week (September 5th). The release of the album and upcoming singles will be further supported by fly posters, special Tina Turner wallpaper for window and in-store display, three different sorts of adhesive window streamers, counter single display, 3-D album centre piece, four different logo boards, special shirts, press kits, biographies, sales folders and single picture discs. A tv campaign combined with radio spots will follow later.
The album produced no less than seven singles, with Typical Male as the worldwide lead single, reaching the top ten in America, Germany and many other countries. The other singles are the ballad Two People, the rock song What You Get Is What You See the title track Break Every Rule, the wonderful Paradise Is Here, the dance track Afterglow and the European only single Girl’s, written by David Bowie.
Typical Male: August 1986 / USA: #2 / Germany: #3 / Europe: #5 / UK: #33 / Spain: #1 / Finland: #1 / Australia: #20
Two People: October 1986 (Europe) / November 1986 (USA) / Germany: #10 / Europe: #13 / USA: #30 / UK: #43
What You Get Is What You See: January 1987 (USA) / February 1987 (Europe) / USA: #13 / Germany: #17 / Europe: #18 / UK: #30 / Australia: #15
Girl’s: February 1987 / Netherlands: #27
Break Every Rule: April 1987 (Europe) / May 1987 (USA) / Germany: #38 / UK: #43 / Europe: #44 / USA: #74 / Australia: #60
Paradise Is Here: September 1987 / Germany: #31
Afterglow: October 1987 / USA: #5 (Dance)
The European tour that broke all records: 14 countries, 45 cities, 96 sold out shows, 1.7 million people!
This tour was billed as Tina’s farewell tour, sponsored by Pepsi-Cola. It broke box office records in 13 countries and was the biggest tour by attendance for a female artist with over 4 million visitors, until Tina broke her own record in 1996 with her Wildest Dreams Tour.
During the first few shows, Tina’s signature song Proud Mary wasn’t on the setlist. Tina avoided it because she had done it so many times for so many years and was a little bit tired of it. Finally in Rotterdam she agreed to try it, just to see how it would work. As the crowd erupted and sang the whole song, Tina realized that 'Mary' is still rollin' on the river.
On January 16, Tina broke the world record for the largest paying audience for a solo concert with a crowd over 182,000 people at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Parts of this concert were later released on the Rio '88 home video.
Opening Night: March 4, 1987 / Munich, Olympiahalle (Germany)
Closing Night: March 27, 1988 / Osaka (Japan)
Regions: Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Australia
Concerts: 200+
Visitors: 4 Mio.
The Band: Guitar, Vocals: James Ralston / Drums: Jack Bruno / Base Guitar, Vocals: Bob Feit / Guitar: Laurie Wisefield / Keyboards, Sax, Vocals: Don Snow / Sax, Flute: Gary Barnacle / Percussions: Steve Scales
For promotion, Capitol Records released a Radio Interview with questions from Paul Gambaccini about the new songs, her autobiography I, Tina and many other things. Pepsi Cola released a special promotional edition of the album in Europe with a very nice gatefold cover, featuring pictures from the Pepsi advertising We Got The Taste and infos about the Pepsi promotion.
The track Back Where You Started, written by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance was a promotional single in North America and managed to reach the American and Canadian charts. Tina’s vocal performance earned her also a Grammy Award in 1987. Last but not least, also the autobiographical song Overnight Sensation was released for radio stations.
In 2022, the album was released as a Deluxe Edition, which features the original album fully remastered, a collection of B-sides, remixes, live performances, Tina's Guinness World Record performance in front of over 180,000 adoring fans at the Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro as well as for the first time the concert at Camden Palace and all music videos on DVD.
Beside the deluxe package, it’s also available on 1LP black vinyl, as an expanded 2CD version and for streaming. The booklet contains new liner notes by Mark Rowland and the box includes two digisleeves with printed inner sleeves and an art card.
Photographer: Herb Ritts / Paul Cox
Design: Darren Evans
Release: November 25, 2022
Label: Rhino / Parlophone
Format: Vinyl / 2 CD / Digital / Box (3 CD, 2 DVD)
Tina filmed a TV-Special at London’s Camden Palace in November 1986 with special guest Robert Cray and an introduction by Max Headroom. Beside songs from Break Every Rule, she performed also some old soul classics like A Change Is Gonna Come. It was broadcasted on March 14, 1987 on TV and was released on the Break Every Rule home video in June, including the music video for the European single Girl’s. Most of the songs were later included into the tracklist of the album Live In Europe. Also in 1987, the What You See Is What You Get video compilation was released with four music videos from the album singles.
Both home videos were remastered and re-issued in 2022 as part of the Break Every Rule (Deluxe Edition).
Since her hit album "Private Dancer" catapulted her into the role of Pop Comeback Queen of the '80s a few years back, sassy soul veteran and multiple Grammy winner Tina Turner has been strutting her stuff in stadiums around the world; the days when you could catch her in a small club are long gone. But Turner fans who yearn to see the singer in a more intimate setting can take heart. Turner's upcoming cable TV special "Break Every Rule" debuts at 9:05 p.m. Saturday on HBO and captures her onstage at a small London club. The results are a slick and lively hour of music, motion and emotion.
Directed by David Mallet, whose previous credits include Turner‘s award-winning 1985 HBO special "Private Dancer" the show opens with Turner rolling out of bed, pouring herself into leather pants and matching top and making her way through the streets to Club Zero, where she's introduced via video by computer-generated celebrity announcer Max Headroom.
Backed by an eight-piece pop-funk band headed by Alan Clark of Dire Straits, Turner swings into action with "Back Where You Started" and continues in high gear for several more songs from her current album "Break Every Rule“, before slowing the pace with the soulful Sam Cooke oldie "A Change Is Gonna Come". Up-and-coming blues singer and guitarist Robert Cray, a recent Grammy winner in the Traditional Blues category, joins Turner on guitar for "A Change Is Gonna Come" and returns later in the concert to duet winningly with her on "634-5789," one of three Wilson Pickett hits included in the set. The others are "In the Midnight Hour" and "Land of 1000 Dances." There’s also a black-and-white segment for "Overnight Sensation," evoking the early days of Turner’s career, and yes, she changes costumes a couple of times, winding up in a skimpy orange outfit at the finale and looking as foxy as ever.