Midler revisits her star-making songs
Award winner is re-releasing debut album, stars in revival of Hello, Dolly! this spring
NEW YORK— Bette Midler is going back to the beginning of her career — the divine beginning. The Grammy and Emmy Award winner is re-releasing a deluxe version of The Divine Miss M, her 1972 debut album that included the hits “Do You Want To Dance,” “Chapel Of Love,” “Friends” and “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.”
“They were the songs that launched me, really. They were the foundation on which I built my career,” Midler said. “I’m always happy to sing them because they’re friends. They’re old friends.”
Midler made a name for herself in the early 1970s singing high-energy concerts downtown with Barry Manilow as her pianist.
“She was, and is, the most brilliant performer we have in my lifetime,” Manilow said. “When it came to the music, her taste in songs and her choices were so odd — what was on the radio those days was nothing like what she wanted to do. Her taste was very much my taste.”
Midler and Manilow put together a solid hour of music and one night lured Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun to a swanky midtown nightclub to hear it. “The audience was so crazy that at the end of the show, they carried her out on their shoulders,” Manilow recalled.
Midler soon signed with Atlantic and released The Divine Miss M based on her act.
This spring, she returns to Broadway in a revival of the musical Hello, Dolly!
She admitted to being a little shocked revisiting the platinum-selling album that made it all possible 44 years later: “It’s just unbelievable the way that time passes. And yet I still look fabulous. What can I say?”
Midler was hands-on with the rerelease by Rhino Records, including selecting the bonus disc of singles, outtakes and demos. There are five unreleased recordings, including “Mr. Freedom And I,” and an alternate version of “Superstar.”
The power and pizzazz of The Divine Miss M was one reason Midler was asked by Blake Shelton to mentor his picks on The Voice this season. In a segment already taped, she advised them to take the stage with authority.
“They get really brilliant voices, but they’re very self-effacing people. They’re not personality-driven. They don’t come fully charged. That’s a piece of the puzzle that they sometimes miss,” Midler said.
“The old school is to be able to do it all and to be a compelling presence on the stage.”