Who recorded it first
Don't Turn Around
Not an Ace of Base original — a 1986 Tina Turner B‑side
Ace of Base’s 1994 smash is so completely theirs in most people’s memory that the song is assumed to have started in Gothenburg. It didn’t. “Don’t Turn Around” was written by Albert Hammond and Diane Warren and first recorded by Tina Turner, issued in August 1986 on Capitol as the B‑side of “Typical Male.” Even listeners who know it’s a cover usually stop at Aswad’s UK No. 1 from 1988 — but Aswad were third in line, after Turner and after Luther Ingram. Turner’s version was never worked as a single of its own, which is exactly why almost nobody heard it.
The record
Who recorded it first
Released August 1986, on Capitol Records — not as a single of its own, but as the B‑side of “Typical Male,” released 11 August 1986. Produced by Bob Clearmountain and Bryan Adams, from the Break Every Rule sessions.
Charted Did not chart. It was a B‑side and was never worked to radio; the A‑side, “Typical Male,” went to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Hear Tina Turner’s 1986 recording, in its 2022 remaster — the version that sat on the back of “Typical Male.” www.youtube.com · Auto-generated upload on the “Tina Turner - Topic” channel (label‑delivered, not a fan rip), titled “Don’t Turn Around (2022 Remaster).” Its 4:19 running time matches the MusicBrainz recording for the 2022 <em>Break Every Rule</em> remaster, which is the 1986 performance remastered — not a later re‑recording.How we know
The song’s encyclopedia entry ↗ names Albert Hammond and Diane Warren as the writers and Tina Turner’s 1986 B‑side as the original recording.
The single it was hidden on, “Typical Male” ↗, was released on Capitol on 11 August 1986 and peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
MusicBrainz ↗ attaches Turner’s 4:16 recording to a US release dated 30 August 1986.
Wikidata ↗ describes the work as written by Warren and Hammond and “first recorded by Tina Turner and released in 1986.”
Wikipedia: “Don’t Turn Around” — original and coversKnow more about the original — or think we’ve got it wrong? Add a source →
Fact-check
Right song, wrong starting point
Two separate mistakes stack up on this one — the common one, and the one made by people who think they’ve corrected it.
Ace of Base
Their single went to No. 4 in the US, No. 5 in the UK and No. 1 in Canada, and for most listeners it is simply what the song is. It is a cover, recorded in 1993 and released in March 1994.
Aswad
The usual correction is “actually it’s an Aswad song.” Their February 1988 reggae version did top the UK chart — but it came after Turner’s recording and after Luther Ingram’s 1987 version.
Tina Turner
Recorded during the Break Every Rule sessions and issued on the flip side of “Typical Male.” First on record, last in public memory.
Albert Hammond and Diane Warren
Neither performer wrote it. Hammond and Warren did, and Hammond later recorded it himself in 2010.
Written by Albert Hammond and Diane Warren; first recorded by Tina Turner, August 1986, as the B‑side of “Typical Male” on Capitol.
Context
Why the cover ate the original
A B‑side is a hiding place. “Don’t Turn Around” was recorded by one of the most famous singers on earth at the peak of her comeback, and still nobody heard it, because it was pressed onto the back of a single whose A‑side was doing all the work. Radio played “Typical Male.” Nothing pushed the flip.
What followed is unusual: the song was covered four separate times before Ace of Base got to it, and each cover found a different audience. Luther Ingram took it to the US R&B chart in 1987. Aswad turned it into a reggae record and took it to No. 1 in the UK in 1988. Bonnie Tyler and Neil Diamond each had a go. By 1994 the song had been in public circulation for eight years without anyone particularly associating it with Tina Turner — so when Ace of Base released the version that went to No. 4 in the US and No. 1 in Canada, there was no incumbent original in listeners’ memory for it to compete with. It simply moved in.
The chronology, step by step
- Albert Hammond and Diane Warren write “Don’t Turn Around.”
- August 1986 — Tina Turner records it during the Break Every Rule sessions, produced by Bob Clearmountain and Bryan Adams; Capitol issues it as the B‑side of “Typical Male.”
- 1987 — Luther Ingram records it; his version reaches No. 55 on the US R&B chart.
- February 1988 — Aswad release their reggae version on Mango/Island, from the album Distant Thunder; it goes to No. 1 in the UK.
- 1988 — Bonnie Tyler records a version; Neil Diamond follows in 1991.
- 1993 — Ace of Base record their version at Tuffs Studios, Gothenburg, with Tommy Ekman and Per Adebratt producing.
- March 1994 — the Ace of Base single is released on Mega and Arista; it peaks at No. 4 in the US, No. 5 in the UK and No. 1 in Canada.
- 2022 — Turner’s 1986 recording is remastered and included on the reissue of Break Every Rule, making the original easy to hear for the first time in decades.
Radio played the A‑side. The song was on the other one.