"Better Be Good to Me" is a song written by

Mike Chapman Michael Donald Chapman (born 13 April 1947) is an Australian-American record producer and songwriter who was a major force in the British pop music industry in the 1970s. He created a string of hit singles for artists including The Sweet, Suz ...

Holly Knight ''Ilex'' (), or holly, is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...

, and

Nicky Chinn Nicholas Barry Chinn (born 16 May 1945) is an English-American songwriter and record producer. Together with Mike Chapman he had a long string of hit singles in the UK and US in the 1970s and early 1980s, including several international number- ...

, recorded by

Tina Turner Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is an American-born Swiss retired singer and actress. Widely referred to as the " Queen of Rock 'n' Roll", she rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue before ...

for her solo record ''

Private Dancer ''Private Dancer'' is the fifth solo studio album by Tina Turner. It was released on May 29, 1984, through Capitol Records and was her first album released through the label. After several challenging years of going solo after divorcing Ike T ...

'' (1984) and released as a single in September 1984. The song was originally recorded and released in 1981 by

Spider Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

, a band from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

that featured co-writer Knight as a member. Turner's version was successful in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

and peaked at No. 5 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and No. 6 on the then-Hot Black Singles charts. At the

27th Annual Grammy Awards The 27th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 26, 1985, at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, and were broadcast live in the United States by CBS. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the year 1984. Award winners Record of th ...

in 1985, it won Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female, one of four Grammys awarded to Turner's ''Private Dancer'' album at that ceremony.

Music video

In the

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) sy ...

, Turner is seen performing the song on stage, wearing a black leather jacket and black skin-tight, knee-length leather pants, with leopard print high heels and spikey blond hair. Towards the end, a man (

Cy Curnin Cyril John Curnin (born 12 December 1957, Wimbledon, England) is a singer/songwriter and musician and is the lead vocalist for the new wave music group, the Fixx. As a songwriter, he has co-written over a dozen songs that have appeared on the ...

the Fixx The Fixx are a rock band from London, England, founded in 1979. The band's hits include " One Thing Leads to Another", " Saved by Zero", " Are We Ourselves?", and " Secret Separation", each of which charted in the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot ...

) appears on stage and grabs Turner's arms. She looks him in the eyes and sings the words, "Why can't you be good to me?", then pushes the man away. At the end of the video, Turner disappears under the stage in a puff of smoke. Both Curnin and the guitarist in the video, Jamie West-Oram (also of the Fixx), perform on the ''Private Dancer'' album.

Personnel

– lead vocals, background vocals * Rupert Hine – bass guitar, keyboards, percussion, programming, background vocals * Jamie West-Oram – guitar *

Trevor Morais Trevor Morais (born 10 October 1944) is an English drummer who has been a member of several notable groups such as Faron's Flamingos, Rory Storm and The Hurricanes, The Peddlers, Quantum Jump and the Elkie Brooks backing band. He is also a s ...

– drums *

– background vocals

Versions and remixes

*7-inch edit – 3:43 *Video edit – 4:05 *Album version – 5:10 *Extended 12-inch Remix – 7:47 *Extended 12-inch Remix (early fade on ''Private Dancer'' EMI Centenary Remaster) – 7:03

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Better Be Good To Me 1984 singles Tina Turner songs Songs written by Nicky Chinn Songs written by Mike Chapman Songs written by Holly Knight 1981 songs Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance Capitol Records singles Song recordings produced by Rupert Hine Dance-rock songs