Just five years before Tina Turner released her mega-hit “The Best” in 1989, its songwriters Holly Knight and Mike Chapman penned another song that turned into one of the biggest hits from Turner’s 1984 solo comeback Private Dancer.
Months after the success of her No. 1 “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” and the latter hit single, the Mark Knopfler-penned “Private Dancer,” which peaked at No. 7, “Better Be Good to Me” gave Turner another top 10 by climbing up the Billboard Hot 100 to No. 5.
Also penned by Knight and Chapman, “Better Be Good to Me” had its origins three years earlier with one of the songwriter’s bands.
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[RELATED: Behind the Song Lyrics: “The Best,” Tina Turner]
Spider
Before Turner came in contact with “Better Be Good to Me,” Knight recorded the song and released it on her former band Spider’s second album Between the Lines. The band released their first two albums on Chapman’s Dreamland Records. She originally co-wrote it with Chapman, along with British producer Nicky Chinn, who didn’t write any lyrics but is credited from a previous songwriting deal with the latter writer.
When Spider disbanded, Knight and Chapman continued writing together, penning Pat Benatar‘s 1983 hit “Love is a Battlefield.”
Around this time, Knight also wanted to revisit “Better Be Good to Me” and after a few minor tweaks, it became Turner’s. Knight continued working with Turner, penning several more songs for her beyond “The Best” and “Better Be Good to Me,” including “Be Tender with Me Baby,” “Ask Me How I Feel,” “Love Thing,” “Do Something,” “In Your Wildest Dreams,” and “One of the Living.”
The Meaning
When Knight originally wrote “Better Be Good to Me,” she was seeing a guy who left her a note that initially sparked the idea for the song title.
“I was seeing a guy at the time who kind of had this adorable little crush on me, this German guy,” said Knight. “He came to my house and left me some flowers and a note, and it said something like, ‘If you’re good to me.’ And I’m thinking, you know, if I can twist that around I can make it into a song. It’s the first song I ever wrote with Mike Chapman, and this was the song that put us together as writers.”
The lyrics are written from the perspective of a woman who demands a particular level of devotion and she will not compromise her independence for mediocre love.
A prisoner of your love
Entangled in your web
Hot whispers in the night
I’m captured by your spell
I’m touched by this show of emotion
Should I be fractured by your lack of devotion?
Should I? Ah!
Should I?
Oh, you better be good to me
That’s how it’s gotta be now
‘Cause I don’t have no use
You loosely call the truth
You better be good to me
You better be good, yeah
Grammys and ‘Miami Vice’
Private Dancer picked up four Grammys in 1985, including Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, Record of the Year, and Song of the Year for “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” and one more for “Better Be Good to Me,” which won the Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female.
“Better Be Good to Me” was also featured in the soundtrack to the television police drama Miami Vice.
“This song was very me,” said Turner of her hit. “I could just see myself performing it. It was just right —the words and the delivery, the performance of it—and what I liked about what Rupert Hine did with it is his style of keyboard. It just blared through, and wherever you heard it, the first thing you got was that bass line that he added.”
Tuner added, “That was what made that song a hit. It was my vocal and Rupert Hine’s keyboard. He’s got something, and it works.”
Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
