Bathhouse Betty

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 --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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.... --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Bathhouse Betty

Tracks:

Song of Bernadette
I'm Beautiful
Lullaby In Blue
Ukulele Lady
I'm Hip
I Sold My Heart to Junkman
One Monkey Don't Stop no Show
Boxing
Big Socks
How Love Moves
My One True Friend
Laughing Matters

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

Customer Reviews:

I'm Beautiful, I'm Beautiful, So Beautiful D*** IT!.......2006-04-21

I love this CD. It is amazing. Mz. M outdoes herself! It's a good mixture and each song has a different feel, not like most albums where it seems you are just listening to one long song.

Hawaian Bette.......2006-03-08

One of my favs showing the true "Miss Divine" personified. If you love Bette & her particularly style. This is one for the collection... Fun & beautiful soulfood.

The Best Overall Release Midler Has Done In Some Time.......2004-07-06

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

Bette on it!.......2004-02-06

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.

VERY GOOD.......2004-01-08

I remember reading a quote from Bette that said her previous record company thought that her last album lacked humor and they missed that. She gets back to basics on "Bathhouse Betty". "Big Socks" is funny and funky at the same time. "Laughing Matters" is a nice play on words. Implying that humor is important to get thru the day in this "effed up" world. (My words not hers.) "Song of Bernadette" is also a hark back to when Bette would do songs from important song writers. In this case Leonard Cohen. I think the only mis-step is the sappy "One True Friend". Check this one out. Worth the money!!!!!!!!!!