Musical, raucous memorial for Ike Turner

Phil Spector and Little Richard both paid tribute to him

	Music producer Phil Spector, center, is blessed by minister Edwin Perry, with rising hands, during a memorial service for music legend Ike Turner at the City of Refuge church in Gardena, Calif. on Dec. 21.
Damian Dovarganes / AP

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updated 8:27 p.m. ET Dec. 21, 2007

GARDENA, Calif. - Ike Turner’s funeral was part memorial service, part rock concert.

The nearly three-hour remembrance Friday at Greater Bethany Community Church City of Refuge in Gardena featured Turner’s eight-piece band, the Kings of Rhythm, which performed rollicking renditions of some of the musician’s greatest hits, including “Nutbush City Limits” and “Proud Mary.” The songs brought the crowd of hundreds to its feet.

“Daddy wouldn’t want any of us crying,” said Turner’s daughter, Mia Turner. “He would want us to throw a party.”

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Among those eulogizing Turner, who died Dec. 13 at age 76, were music producer Phil Spector and rock ’n’ roll pioneer Little Richard, who described his friend as “one of the greatest musicians I have ever met in my life.”

Richard said that Turner’s breakthrough rock ’n’ roll hit, “Rocket 88,” “shook my soul.”

“I took that same introduction and made ‘Good Golly, Miss Molly,”’ he said. “I took that same thing and made a huge hit.”

Turner was responsible for a string of hits throughout his career, including 1959’s “A Fool in Love” and 1970’s “Take You Higher,” but his musical legacy was forever tarnished by his image as the drug-addicted, brutally abusive former husband of Tina Turner.

Spector, who produced Turner’s song “River Deep, Mountain High,” said, “There was only one Ike, and I learned more from Ike than any professors I know.”

He went on to say that Turner was “demonized and vilified” by his ex-wife, Tina Turner. He called the 1993 film “What’s Love Got To Do With It,” based on her autobiography, a “piece of trash movie,” inspiring applause from some mourners.

“Ike made Tina the jewel she was,” Spector said.

Spector also accused Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg of “demonizing” Turner on their talk shows.

Of Turner’s 17 months in jail for a drug conviction in 1989, Spector said, “He was sent to prison for no other reason than he was a black man in America.”

Each speech was punctuated with performances by Turner’s band, the crowd rising to its feet again and again to sing and dance along.

Concert promoter Charlie Dutton, Turner’s friend and colleague for 40 years, called him “the most talented musical person to ever live on earth.”

“He doesn’t get his just dues for what he really did,” Dutton said.

Other speakers included Ike Turner Jr., who brought his father’s two Grammy Awards on stage.

“He made billions and billions and billions of people happy,” he said. “He had the best life.”

The service began with a photo montage from throughout Turner’s life set to his song “Jesus Loves Me,” which features the refrain “I’m a bad boy, but Jesus loves me anyway.”

A 10-piece horn-and-drum ensemble played as mourners left the church.