Alline Bullock (December 1, 1936 – September 4, 2010) was an American songwriter and the older sister of singer

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 ...

. Bullock was the one-time manager of the girl group the Ikettes. She wrote songs for

Ike & Tina Turner Ike & Tina Turner were an American musical duo consisting of husband and wife Ike Turner and Tina Turner. From 1960 to 1976, they performed live as the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, supported by Ike Turner's band the Kings of Rhythm and backing voca ...

as well as their band the

Kings of Rhythm The Kings of Rhythm are an American music group formed in the late 1940s in Clarksdale, Mississippi and led by Ike Turner through to his death in 2007. Turner would retain the name of the band throughout his career, although the group has underg ...

, most notably " Funkier Than a Mosquita's Tweeter" which was covered by

Nina Simone Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), known professionally as Nina Simone (), was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blu ...

Biography

Ruby Alline Bullock was born on December 1, 1936, the second child of Zelma Priscilla (née Currie) and first to Floyd Richard Bullock. She had a half-sister, Evelyn Juanita Currie, who was two years older and a younger sister, Anna Mae Bullock, three years her junior. Her family lived in

Nutbush, Tennessee Nutbush is a rural unincorporated community in Haywood County, Tennessee, United States, in the western part of that state, about 50 miles northeast of Memphis. It was established in the early 19th century by European-American settlers who br ...

where her father worked as an overseer of the

sharecroppers Sharecropping is a legal arrangement with regard to agricultural land in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range ...

at Poindexter Farm on Highway 180. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, her parents moved up north for work and she stayed at her maternal grandparents' home while her younger sister stayed with their paternal grandparents. After the war, Bullock and her sisters were reunited with their parents in

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the stat ...

. Shortly after, the family returned to Haywood County and she attended Flagg Grove Elementary School. In 1950, her mother left without notice, moving to St. Louis, Missouri, to escape her volatile marriage. Her father remarried soon after and moved to

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

. Bullock and her sisters were sent to live with their grandmother Georgeanna Currie in

Brownsville, Tennessee Brownsville is a city in and the county seat of Haywood County, Tennessee, United States, located in the western Its population as of the 2010 census was 10,292, with a decrease to 9,788 at the 2020 census. The city is named after General Jacob J ...

. As a teenager, her half-sister Evelyn died in a car crash alongside her cousins Margaret and Vela Evans. After graduating from Carver High School in Brownsville, Bullock moved to Detroit to live with some relatives for a short while before reuniting with her mother in St. Louis. In 1956, Bullock's grandmother Georgeanna died and her sister Anna Mae joined them in St. Louis. Bullock introduced her sister to the club scene in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

and the neighboring

East St. Louis, Illinois East St. Louis is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois. It is directly across the Mississippi River from Downtown St. Louis, Missouri and the Gateway Arch National Park. East St. Louis is in the Metro-East region of Southern Illinois. Once a b ...

. Bullock worked as a barmaid at the Manhattan Club where the

house band A house band is a group of musicians, often centrally organized by a band leader, who regularly play at an establishment. It is widely used to refer both to the bands who work on entertainment programs on television or radio, and to bands which ...

was

Ike Turner Izear Luster "Ike" Turner Jr. (November 5, 1931 – December 12, 2007) was an American musician, bandleader, songwriter, record producer, and talent scout. An early pioneer of 1950s rock and roll, he is best known for his work in the 1960s and ...

and his

. Turner had the most popular band in the Greater St. Louis area. Bullock was dating Kings of Rhythm drummer Eugene Washington when he gave Anna Mae the microphone during an intermission in 1957. Anna Mae joined the band as Little Ann, one of Turner's vocalists. In 1960, Turner renamed Little Ann, giving her the name Tina Turner, and formed the

Revue. The duo released a string of hit records, including "

A Fool in Love "A Fool in Love" is the debut single by Ike & Tina Turner. It was released on Sue Records in 1960. The song is Tina Turner's first professional release although she had been recording with Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm since 1958. It was the ...

" (1960), " It's Gonna Work Out Fine" (1961), and "

I Idolize You "I Idolize You" is a song written and produced by Ike Turner. It was released by Ike & Tina Turner in 1960 as the second single from their debut album ''The Soul of Ike & Tina Turner''. Overview After years with male front-men backing his Kings o ...

" (1961). Bullock eventually relocated to Los Angeles and lived with Ike and Tina's four sons while they toured across the country. She worked in the business side of the Ike & Tina Turner organization. She briefly managed the Ikettes (

Robbie Montgomery Robbie Montgomery (born June 16, 1940) is an American singer and restaurateur. She is noted for being one of the original Ikettes in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue in the 1960s. After her tenure as an Ikette, she was a member of the Mirettes, and t ...

Venetta Fields Venetta Lee Fields (born 1941) is an American-born singer, musical theater actress and vocal coach. She was a backing vocalist for American and British rock and pop acts of the 1960s and 1970s, including Ike & Tina Turner, Pink Floyd, Humble Pi ...

, and Jessie Smith) after they left the revue in 1965, but Ike prevented them from using the name; they became

the Mirettes The Mirettes were a female vocal trio composed of former members of the Ikettes in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. History Robbie Montgomery, Venetta Fields and Jessie Smith were the first official incarnation of the Ikettes, a backing trio for I ...

. As a songwriter, Bullock wrote songs for Ike & Tina Turner, most notably " Funkier Than a Mosquita's Tweeter" on their album '' Workin' Together'' (1970). The song has been covered by various artists, including

. She also wrote three songs on the 1972 album, ''

Strange Fruit "Strange Fruit" is a song written and composed by Abel Meeropol (under his pseudonym Lewis Allan) and recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939. The lyrics were drawn from a poem by Meeropol published in 1937. The song protests the lynching of Black ...

'', by Family Vibes (formerly the Kings of Rhythm). After her sister's acrimonious divorce from Ike in 1978, Bullock still considered him her brother-in-law and attended his funeral in 2007. She told ''Ebony'' in 2008: "He was generous and jovial. He seemed like he was forgiving and wanted to be forgiven for the things he did in his early years. The media after he died, tried to destroy his name." By then, she was using the surname Selico. She died at 73 in

Valley Village, California Valley Village is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, located within the San Fernando Valley. History Founding According to Elke Garman, co-president of the Valley Village Homeowners Association in 1991, the history of Valley Village wen ...

, on September 4, 2010. She is survived by her daughter, Jacquline Bullock, and her grandchildren.

Songwriting credits

* 1970:

– "Love Is a Game" * 1970:

– "Funkier Than a Mosquita's Tweeter" * 1971: Ike & Tina Turner – "Baby (What You Want Me to Do)" * 1971: Ike & Tina Turner – "Pick Me Up (Take Me Where Your Home Is)" * 1972: The Family Vibes – "Happy but Lonely" * 1972: The Family Vibes – "Bootie Lip" * 1972: The Family Vibes – "D.M.Z." * 1974:

– "Funkier Than a Mosquito's Tweeter" * 2005:

Nikka Costa Domenica "Nikka" Costa (born 4 June 1972) is an American singer whose music combines elements of pop, soul, and blues. She also had a career as a child singer starting in the early 1980s. She is the daughter of music producer Don Costa. Early ...

– "Funkier Than a Mosquito's Tweeter" * 2009:

Joe Bonamassa Joseph Leonard Bonamassa ( ; born May 8, 1977) is an American blues rock guitarist, singer and songwriter. He started his career at age twelve, when he opened for B.B. King. Since 2000, Bonamassa has released fifteen solo albums through his ind ...

– "Funkier Than a Mosquito's Tweeter" *2011:

Kara Grainger Kara Grainger is an Australian soul blues and roots rock singer-songwriter, based out of Nashville, Tennessee, United States. She played with the Papa Lips band starting in 1994. In 1998, they were awarded the "Best New Band" award at the Austra ...

– "Babe What You Want Me to Do" * 2012: Morgan James – "Funkier Than a Mosquito's Tweeter" * 2016: Cherrill Rae – "Funkier Than a Mosquita's Tweeter"

References

External links

Aillene Bullock credits
on

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bullock, Alline 1936 births 2010 deaths People from Brownsville, Tennessee People from Knoxville, Tennessee People from St. Louis People from Los Angeles African-American songwriters American women songwriters Songwriters from Tennessee African-American women musicians 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women 21st-century African-American women