Bathhouse Betty

Bette Midler

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 15, 1998)
• Original Release Date: September 15, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Warner Bros / Wea
• ASIN: B00000AG8V
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (87 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #29,314 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

Bathhouse Betty's title harks back to Midler's early days as a favorite of the Manhattan gay community. Its eclectic, surprisingly strong choice of material also recalls the triumphs of her first two albums. Here she discovers a sassy new anthem in "I'm Beautiful," adds Dave Frishberg's wry "I'm Hip" for good measure, and also makes room for R&B classics like Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles' "I Sold My Heart to the Junkman" and Big Maybelle's "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show." Singer-songwriters Leonard Cohen ("Song of Bernadette") and Ben Folds ("Boxing," an imagined monologue by Muhammad Ali) help offset the bathos of "My One True Friend," the latest in Midler's series of instant-standard ballads. --Rickey Wright

People

...[O]n "I'm Beautiful," in which her old, Divine Miss M persona returns, hawking her own "cosmic fabulosity," ... she keeps up her Mae-West-meets-the-Andrews-Sisters schtick....

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars bathhouse bette is back---better than ever, November 9, 1999

By A Customer

I dare you to listen to Ukelele Lady and not go looking for your grass-skirt! This is my favorite song on the cd.I'm Beautiful and One monkey dont stop no show are perfect examples of bathhouse bette at her best.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Best Overall Release Midler Has Done In Some Time, July 5, 2004

By	Gary F. Taylor "GFT" (Biloxi, MS USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The Divine Miss M's output has become increasingly slick over the years, and certainly BATHHOUSE BETTE offers one more Bette-Midler-Awash-In-Strings numbers than I care to hear. But while BATHHOUSE BETTE is in some respects predictable, it captures just enough of Midler's legendary fire and spontaneity to make it a solid release--and really the best over-all recording she has done in quite some time.

In truth, Midler really does such over-arranged material as "Song of Bernadette" and "My One True Friend" as well and often quite a bit better than most current recording artists--but what she does best, really, is simply be Bette Midler. And BATHHOUSE BETTE gives her a solid opportunity to do that in a host of songs that range from vintage to recent. The 1920s "Ukulele Lady" has tremendous period charm, and when she launches into the delicate "I Sold My Heart to the Junkman" or the wild and woolly "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show," you know you're getting Midler at her unfiltered best.

Along the way Midler also finds room for several of the eccentric numbers that she inevitably performs with such style--a wickedly funny reworking of the danceclub favorite "I'm Beautiful" drops into the mix like an alien from outer space, and the super-sly "Big Socks" finds her doing a narrow-eyed take off on the lyrically-weak, production-heavy likes of Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson.

While this isn't really Bette at her flaming jets best, it's all a lot of fun, beautifully performed, lightly enjoyable, and just scrambled enough in content to occasionally throw you an amusing curve.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bette on it!, February 6, 2004

By	Jake Z "holden84" (Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Bette Midler's 1998 album BATHHOUSE BETTY is truly a treat. After the undeserving lukewarm reception to her 1995 album BETTE OF ROSES, on this release we find Bette as diverse as ever, showcasing many musical styles she has represented throughout her career. This is one of the best albums of her career. The ballads are incredible, and there's some fun camp songs that Bette fans have come to love and expect from the Divine Miss M!

It opens with Leonard Cohen's "Song of Bernadette", a really nice ballad that is very inspiring. Next is the #1 club smash, "I'm Beautiful", a really fun campy song full of attitude and it sounds like it was written for Bette! She puts her stamp on it, and it's a classic. I really like the ballad "Lullaby In Blue", a really reflective piece about a woman who had to give up her daughter when she was on 17, and how she thinks of her all the time and remembers. "Ukelele Lady" is a nice nod to her Hawaiian heritage, another fun song.

She tears it up on the jazzy "I'm Hip". I really enjoy her version of Labelle's "I Sold My Heart To The Junkman", its bluesy and smoltering. "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show" is a nice jazzy uptempo song. "Boxing" is an interesting ballad. "Boxing" is a very interesting R&B/dance type song, very tongue in cheek, VERY Bette. "That's How Love Moves" is another beautiful ballad, but the winner to me is "My One True Friend", produced by David Foster. This song just gives me a lump in my throat every time I hear it, it's so beautiful and sad at the same time. She ends the album with the sardonic "Laughing Matters", but it's an interesting take on society.

Usually, when an album has a number of producers, it tends to sound uneven. Not the case with this album. There was a number of producers including David Foster, Arif Mardin, Chuckii Booker, Marc Shaiman, Ted Templeman, and Brock Walsh. This is a really good Bette album, I highly recommend it.