Ryan's Reviews

While putting together my review on the 1979 soundtrack "The Rose", Bette's album preceding this one, I came across this interesting bit of IMDB trivia. Apparently, according to a book called "The Academy Awards: The Complete Unofficial History", Bette had turned down parts in "Nashville" (1975), "Rocky" (1976) and "Foul Play" (1978), so she could play the main role in "The Rose". She felt it would "make her an instant screen icon". Between that, and stories about Bette being involved at some point or another in movies like "Annie", "Sister Act" (Dolores Van Cartier played by Whoopi Goldberg) and "The Lion King" (as Mufasa's Queen Sarabi), I just have to say: WOW! Bette's next project following "The Rose" was both a concert film and an accompanying live album by the name of "Divine Madness". It was also her first release for the 1980s, a decade which (by 1...

It was the first major film role for Bette Midler. It was also the first time a soundtrack primarily sung by Bette Midler would be released in tandem with one of her movies, something that would happen again with "Beaches", "For the Boys" and the 1993 TV version of "Gypsy". The film, which was a fictionalized story on singer Janis Joplin, earned four Academy Award nominations including Best Actress in a Leading Role (Bette), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Frederic Forrest), Best Film Editing and Best Sound. Today I'm going to be looking at that classic soundtrack, with songs like "Whose Side Are You On?", "Midnight in Memphis", "When a Man Loves a Woman", and more, very much including one of the most important songs of Bette's career, one of her most beloved and remembered to this day, "The Rose" written by Amanda McBroom and produced by Paul A. Rothchild. The soundtrack was produced by Rothchild, a renowne...

October 1979 saw the release of Bette Midler’s fifth studio album "Thighs and Whispers" on Atlantic Records, and let me tell you this! I am just a recent arrival at this party, but so better later than never! What, Bette late? Never! Half the reason I kept trying to hunt this one down on CD was because of the opening song "Big Noise from Winnetka" which I knew from Bette's 1980 live album "Divine Madness", and I really wanted to hear the full studio version on CD. It was marvellous! It was magically cool! It was awesome! But as brilliant as I found this whole thing to be, was almost as terrible trying to find myself a CD copy! Madness! And nothing to do with divine! Finally, after about what might have been a year, I saw it and couldn't believe my own eyes. There it was, Bette Midler's fifth studio album sitting right there on CD, just waiting for me to reach out and grab it, and hopefully some other eager pair of eyes wouldn't reach out an...