TINA TURNER DIDN’T RECORD “THE BEST” FIRST — BUT SHE TURNED IT INTO A SONG THE WORLD WOULD NEVER FORGET
When Tina Turner released “The Best” in 1989, the song sounded as though it had been written specifically for her.
The confidence, the power and the soaring chorus matched the woman the world had come to know after her extraordinary comeback. By then, Tina was no longer fighting to prove that she could survive without her past. She had already rebuilt her career and established herself as one of the most commanding performers in music.
But there was one surprising detail.
“The Best” was not originally Tina Turner’s song.
The track was written by Mike Chapman and Holly Knight and first recorded by Bonnie Tyler, who released her version in 1988. Tyler’s recording achieved some success, but it did not become the worldwide anthem the song would later be known as.
A year later, Tina heard something in it.
She did not simply copy the original arrangement. Before recording her version, Tina approached Holly Knight and asked for changes, including an additional bridge and a change of key. Those adjustments helped reshape the song around Tina’s voice and the dramatic style that had become central to her performances.
The result sounded completely different.
Released in August 1989 as the lead single from Tina’s album Foreign Affair, “The Best” quickly became an international success. It reached No. 5 in the United Kingdom, No. 4 in Australia and No. 15 in the United States, while becoming even more successful across parts of Europe.
The chart numbers, however, only tell part of the story.
Over time, “The Best” became one of the songs most closely associated with Tina Turner. Its opening lines could instantly transform an arena, and the chorus became the kind of lyric audiences could sing together even decades after the record was released.
Bonnie Tyler herself later acknowledged what Tina had done with the song. Although Tyler had recorded it first, she said Tina’s version was better and that its success actually gave her confidence in her own judgment for choosing the material.
The song also found an unexpected second life in sports.
In 1990, “The Best” became part of a major promotional campaign for rugby league in Australia. Tina appeared alongside players in advertisements and later performed the song around major rugby events. The association became so strong that the track remained connected to Australian rugby culture for decades.
By then, the title itself had begun changing in the public imagination.
Although the official name was simply “The Best,” many listeners started calling it “Simply the Best” because of the famous phrase in the chorus. The nickname became so common that later releases sometimes incorporated it into the title.
That may be the clearest sign of how completely Tina made the song her own.
She did not write it.
She did not record it first.
But once Tina Turner put her voice, attitude and sense of drama into “The Best,” the song became almost impossible to separate from her.
What began as another pop-rock composition became one of the defining anthems of Tina Turner’s career — a song so closely tied to her name that generations of listeners would eventually forget it had ever belonged to anyone else.