Bette Midler [Original recording remastered]

Bette Midler | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 29, 1995)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Atlantic / Wea
• ASIN: B000002J5C
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #203,313 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing, classic album of The Divine Miss M's, November 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Bette Midler (Audio CD)

"Bette Midler" is one of the most classic, entertaining albums I have ever owned. "Skylark" is a gorgeous ballad, which highlights Bette's sweeping, beautiful voice. "Drinking Again" continues this tone with a melancholic, bittersweet ballad; highly unusual for a drinking song. "Breaking Up Somebody's Home" is a sultry, absolute riot. Bette is allowed in this song to put on her vampiness and campiness in full force as she says "You girls had better hold onto your men, cause I've got a funny feeling...I feel like breaking up somebody's home." Her performance in this song is just hilarious. "Surbaya Johnny" I don't have much to say about, although it is a very sweet song. "I Shall Be Released" as sung by the Divine One is one of the most uplifting, soaring beautiful songs ever recorded. She fills the music with such an amazing amount of passion and longing. It is a wonderful reminder of the humanity in us all. From this point, the album moves into a wonderful suite of old Broadway-1940's-campy-showtune type music. This and "I Shall Be Released" is what truly makes this album one to remember for all the ages. It begins with the "Optimistic Voices" chorus from "The Wizard of Oz," which leads directly into "Lullabye of Broadway," with Bette hilariously performing both male and female characters. What is so amazing is how in this disk, she is not just singing the songs, but performing them in character. Next comes the greatest recording ever of the old classic "In the Mood," and with Bette's playful amazing delivery it would be impossible to not be in the mood to hear it. The next medley is of "Uptown" which is beautifully done and leads directly into a slow "Don't Say Nothing Bad About My Baby" which becomes increasingly faster and faster till it reaches breakneck speed then immediately stops for a rousing rendition of "Da Doo Run Run". Then come one of the funniest-written songs ever, "Twisted." Let's just say Bette plays a girl who "hated to ride on those double-decker buses because they had no driver on the top" and who "instead of one head, has two." "Higher and Higher" closes off the album perfectly with its beautiful uplifting lyrics. All in all an amazing record, a true classic from a truly brilliant performer, the Divine Miss M, Bette Midler.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not quite the Divine Miss M, but certainly in the ballpark, October 2, 2003

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Bette Midler (Audio CD)

Bette Midler's self-titled 1973 second album is a notch below "The Divine Miss M," but that is hardly surprising since her debut effort so wonderfully defined her singing persona (although this album did chart slightly higher). "Bette Midler" is in the same vein, mixing Forties Boogie-Woogie with some R&B and straight out blues. Once again Barry Manilow, who played piano for Midler when she was starting out, provides some solid production values to the effort. The standout kitsch track is when she starts off "The Lullaby of Broadway" with "The Optimistic Voices" from "The Wizard of Oz." Her high octane version of "In the Mood" was the one single released from the album, but it only made it to #51 on Billboard. However, look over the play list and clearly Midler is trying to provide some substance with the style when she is recording songs by Kurt Weil and Bertolt Brecht, not to mention Johnny Mercer, Hoagy Carmichael, and Bob Dylan, although the latter's "I Shall Be Released" seems a tad out of place (check out the live version on "Divine Madness" where it comes out of the Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want"). This album is still worth having, but only after you get the ones that came before it and after it ("Songs for the New Depression"), which are the two best albums from the early years of Midler's career (i.e., anything before "The Rose"). Of course, if you have ever seen Midler perform live, it is pretty hard not to want to own everything she has ever recorded.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is her best record., September 10, 1998

By 

"candy" (Seattle) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bette Midler (Audio CD)

I have listened to this record hundreds of times over the years and I never seem to grow tired of it. It was first released in 1973, produced by Barry Manilow and Arif Mardin. Her voice on this record is unencumbered by melodramatic echo effects or cheezy synthesized keyboards as in later albums. Her versions of "Skylark" and "Drinking Again" do justice to Johnny Mercer's genius. She treats Skylark like it is a message of longing, with a hope that is just on the verge of desperation and sadness. "Drinking Again" is a portrait of woman who has lost her self respect to a beer bottle because she has lost the love of her life. Bette is able to convey mixed and complicated feelings with her voice so she can wring every drop of emotion out of a song. I have heard other versions and the singers miss so much that is there in the poetry of Johnny's songs. Her voice has that scratchy, emotional edge that overwhelms you with its force when she belts it out in "Higher and Higher" and "I shall be Released". This record also has plenty of fun songs like "Optimistic Voices/Lullaby Of Broadway", "Da Doo Run Run" and "Twisted". Along with the fine musicianship of these songs, she adds her original, brassy sense of humor to make them sound fresh, not cutesy. You will sing along as you do the dishes and wish to God that you had such a voice when you can't keep up with her! Once you hear her interpretations of these songs, you only get irritated when you hear them sung by someone else. You wish they had just played her version instead, because nothing compares to the Divine Miss M when she sings the classics.