Tina Turner

Released: March 1, 1979

Songwriter: John Whitehead Gene McFadden Leon Huff

Producer: Alec R. Costandinos

[Chorus]
(What they do! )
Smile in my face
All the time they want to take my place
The back stabbers (back stabbers)

I say, they smile in my face
All the time they want to take my place
The back stabbers (back stabbers)

Everybody who really have someone
And if you really, really care
Then I'm telling everybody
That you’ve gotta beware, yeah

Somebody's out to take your baby
And a few of your best friends
They sure look shady
Blades are long, clenched tight in their fist
Aimin' straight at your back
I just don’t think they'll miss

[Chorus]
(What they do! )
They keep smiling in your face
All the time they want to take your place
The back stabbers (back stabbers)

A house fully of visitors
Always around, calling themselves my friends
Oh, they keep coming around
Time and time and time and time again

I know they're trying to take my baby
Even though I'd never home
They just keep on comin'
What can I do to get them on the right track
Oh, I wish they'd take some of these knives off my back

[Chorus]
(What they did!) (Do, do)
They keep smiling in my face
All the time they want to take my place
The back stabbers (back stabbers)

(What they did!) (Do, do)
They keep smiling in my face
All the time they want to take my place
(back stabbers)

Talking about Back Stabbers
(smile in my face all the time)
I know they just wanna take my place
(back stabbers)

(They just keep smiling in my face)
Two faces, mornin'
They just want to take my place

They Keep smiling
(They keep smiling in my face
All the time they want to take my place)
All the time!
They just wanna take my place...

Ohhh, yeah

Often dubbed the Queen of Rock & Roll, Tina Turner is arguably among the most iconic of female divas in history, with her prolific career and memorable personality as a performer and a public figure. Hailing from a small town in Tennessee, and born Anna Mae Bullock, Turner has cemented herself as one of music’s greatest entertainers.

Turner’s career in music arose from her frequenting of nightclubs near St. Louis, where she would meet her soon-to-be husband Ike Turner, who would also give her the alias “Tina”. With Ike, she would form the famous Ike And Tina Turner Revue. A dynamic, explosive R&B ensemble, the two became the definition of the genre in the late 60s and early 70s, where R&B/Soul had only tiptoed into the realms of the mainstream. A particularly influential act in popularizing the genre, the Revue went on to release some of music’s most memorable and iconic tracks – a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary”, the Phil Spector-penned “River Deep – Mountain High”, and the electric “Nutbush City Limits”. After a host of drug and abuse problems on Ike’s part, with the male Turner eventually engaging in a violent altercation with his wife, Tina decided to leave her husband for the solo life – and it worked.

As a solo artist, with the help of fellow artists like glam rocker David Bowie, Turner tumbled into mainstream success in the 80s with the only number-one hit of her career – the unconquerable love ballad “What’s Love Got To Do With It” as part of her debut solo album, Private Dancer.

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