Bette Midler

Bette Midler touched off a nostalgia boom in the '70s with The Divine Miss M and "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," but warm-'n'-fuzzy tunnel vision really wasn't her style--at first. Her audaciously theatrical delivery and campy, taste-zapping zest for life can still strike a listener like a cold slap in the face. She could play the bawdy mama act to the hilt, yet Midler also found the emotional center in a dumbfounding variety of songs. Of course, her voice--surprisingly supple and delicate at times--helps quite a bit. A true child of the '60s underneath her tacky period glitz, Midler exults in girl-group melodrama ("Chapel of Love") and singer/songwriter homilies (John Prine's "Hello in There") alike on her debut album. If you can bear the chattering show-biz patter on the first version of "Friends" (this acid-etched soundtrack chestnut appears twice), the shameless delights offered on The Divine Miss M will melt even the sternest objections to cabaret music. The early Bette Midler falls somewhere between a traditional belter and a modern-day performance artist.

Naturally, this made Bette a dynamite live performer--and also an underdeveloped recording artist. Bette Midler repeats the scattershot format of the debut, with respectable-enough results. "Twisted" prefigures Joni Mitchell's hit version of this bitter '50s cocktail, and signals Midler's widespread influence. The soul cover versions are another matter; despite her élan, Midler can't do justice to the raw lust of Ann Peebles' "Breaking Up Somebody's Home" or the spiritual uplift of Jackie Wilson's "Higher and Higher." You can't do everything; Midler shines on "Da Doo Ron Ron" and "Lullabye of Broadway."

From the strained opener ("Strangers in the Night") onward, Songs for the New Depression is where Bette Midler's musically adventurous act lapses into shtick. The Rose established Midler as an actress; she credibly portrays a Janis Joplinesque doomed rock star in this hit melodrama. The Rose album is the first of several very successful Midler soundtracks. "Wind Beneath Your Wings," from the 1988 screen weeper Beaches, kick-started Midler's languishing musical career when it charted that year. Up until then, she'd been sadly adrift on record during the '90s. Live at Last and the Broadway stage soundtrack Divine Madness will more than satisfy fans, however. Ironically, Midler, who started her career singing deceptively witty little ditties, wound up the '80s pumping straight sentimental hokum on Some People's Lives and the 1990 smash "From a Distance." Midler's acting career continued to thrive throughout the '90s, and her albums started to feel more and more like sidelights--albeit sidelights that were often pleasurable in a dilletanteish way. Curious newcomers should start with Divine Miss M and proceed to Bette Midler. Those with an appetite for Midler's megahits as well as her campy beginnings should search out the career overview Experience the Divine. (MARK COLEMAN/NATHAN BACKETT)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide