Bette Midler: Experience The Divine: Greatest Hits (1993)

The butterfly in the top left hand corner, the screaming merry face of the Divine Miss M, and the big bold letters announcing the title: this is "Experience the Divine: Greatest Hits" from Bette Midler. This and 1998's "Bathhouse Betty" became the first two Bette albums I ever owned and listened to. This year, that would have been twenty-five years ago.

There were two different versions of "Experience the Divine", the first one released in 1993 following Bette's most recent studio album "Some People's Lives" and the soundtrack of "For the Boys" (both of these have been reviewed in my previous posts). This is the one with the lime green background on the cover and the multi-coloured polka dots splashed about the place. This is the version I can still remember seeing in a promo poster at the local Kmart back in 1993.

The second is the updated version from 1996, following Bette's then most recent album "Bette of Roses", with a somewhat more subdued backdrop on the album cover, four more songs, and the version I first heard.

How many albums does "Experience the Divine" cover? Let's just have a look at the track list here, of version #1 anyway: Hello in There, Do You Want to Dance?, From a Distance, Chapel of Love, Only in Miami, When a Man Loves a Woman, The Rose, Miss Otis Regrets, Shiver Me Timbers, Wind Beneath My Wings, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, One for my Baby (And One More for the Road), Friends and In my Life. That covers about everything really, with the exception of "Songs for the New Depression", although the live version of "Shiver Me Timbers" is present, "Broken Blossom", "Thighs and Whispers" and the live comedy album "Mud Will Be Flung Tonight!" which is probably not surprising really. Plus we have the addition of the song from the last episode of Johnny Carson's "The Tonight Show", a performance for which Bette was nominated for an Emmy.

The 1996 version adds the most recent single "To Deserve You" taken from "Bette of Roses", along with a dance version which you won't find on the original album, along with two more songs from 1983's "No Frills": "Beast of Burden" and "Favorite Waste of Time". Basically, "No Frills" is getting a little more love here than it did the first time, and one definitely cannot complain about that if they consider that half of that album could have been played on radio for decades. I still couldn't tell you why it wasn't.

So just how well did this compilation do? And why is that especially important here? It's important because I believe this is the compilation that Bette personally worked on. And it seems to have done rather well indeed, according to the certifications on Uncle Wiki, which I presume are in relation with the 1993 release. Note: I presume *all* of this is in relation to 1993.

"Experience the Divine" sold 4x Platinum in Australia, Gold in Canada and New Zealand, Platinum in the UK and US, and 2x Platinum in the Netherlands. The Weekly Charts went like so: #3 in Australia (thank you very much!), New Zealand and Australia, rising to a whopping #1 on the Dutch Album Top 100, while coming in at a somewhat less impressive #50 on the US Billboard 200, rising up to #27 on Canada Top Albums/CDs. Given how much I remember this, before I became a fan, I'm surprised it wasn’t #3 at least in the US either.

Historically, the 1996 version becomes the last album ever released from Bette on the Atlantic Records label. She had been with them from the very beginning with "The Divine Miss M", all the way through to "Beaches", "Some People's Lives", and "For the Boys". In the years following the departure from Atlantic, Bette would sign with the Warner Brothers Records label releasing "Bathhouse Betty" and even producing and starring in her own T.V. sitcom with accompanying CD called "Bette". I'm going to get to those two albums later, along with "Bette of Roses", and I'm pretty looking forward to that.

Let's have a look at the songs, which might be a (favorite?) waste of time depending on how you look at this album, *but* there are some intriguing exceptions here! Firstly, I'm going to be looking at the 1996 edition, as that contains the most songs.

"To Deserve You (Single Remix)"---unless you have the single, you won’t find this on any album. But this is the version that went #1 on the US Hot Dance Club Play chart in 1996, which makes it the closest thing to the kind of success I wish this album had gotten. I can see why this succeeded.

"Beast of Burden"---this is one of the rocky moments from the eclectic "No Frills" album.

"Favorite Waste of Time"---now we get this one, also from the "No Frills" album, which, as I've said on a few occasions before, deserved better treatment.

"Hello in There"---I think it's important, as a Bette fan, if you've only heard her original, to go off and listen to the live one from "Live at Last". It's done in an almost completely different way, but both are exceptionally moving to me, and I think you're missing out if you haven't heard it.

"Do You Want to Dance?"---this is the one that started it all really, Bette inviting us to dance for the next fifty years, which I probably shouldn't have just said, but come on.

"From a Distance"---while "Experience the Divine" and "Bathhouse Betty" were the first Bette albums I ever owned, "From a Distance" was the first single I heard, on a cassette copy which belonged to my Mum. The B-side was "One More Round", the two Bette songs I played and enjoyed for what must have been months. I love this song and the remake on 2006's "Cool Yule".

"Chapel of Love"---another classic moment from "The Divine Miss M", and the dialogue at the end gave me an early glimpse into Bette's comedy and spontaneity as a performer.

"Only in Miami"---I've said this before, but this still does feel like a song from "Some People's Lives", when actually it comes from the earlier "No Frills" album. If you know songs like "All of a Sudden", "From a Distance", "Miss Otis Regrets", can't you imagine this fitting in somewhere? I almost want to try it out sometime.

"When a Man Loves a Woman"---this is an example of how much I love the variety in Bette's work, because we've gone from something like "Do You Want to Dance?" and "From a Distance" to the rock of Bette as Rose singing "When a Man Loves a Woman", and she just does some great screaming here.

"The Rose"---and this is one of the intriguing exceptions I was talking about in my introduction, because this is the single orchestral version of the song, which you won't find on the original album. This is probably still the best way to hear this version on CD.

"Miss Otis Regrets"---the "Some People's Lives" album version has a spoken line at the start. I'm not really sure why it's missing here, but OK. It's not something I find myself complaining about, but it does compliment it rather nicely I suppose. This song was my introduction to Cole Porter! Thanks Bette!

"Shiver Me Timbers"---from Cole Porter to Tom Waits, Bette offers us this moving live version of "Shiver Me Timbers" from her epic double LP "Live at Last". For the longest time, this was the only song I'd ever heard from this album. It's probably still my favourite version.

"Wind beneath my Wings"---the big one!!! What more can I say?

"Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy"---here comes another intriguing exclusive! If you wanted to hear a stereo version of "Boogie Woogie" on CD before 1993, it probably would have been a bootleg. I love having this thing. Bear in mind, I haven't heard "The Divine Miss M Deluxe Edition" from recent years which probably also includes the mix. I prefer this over the album.

"One for my Baby (And One More for the Road)"---this is the reason you would buy this album really, if you already owned all of the others. It's Bette's performance on the last episode of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. She even appeared in the Simpsons version for Krusty the Klown, although they had her singing "Wind beneath My Wings" there. This is classic Bette, and you can feel that transcendent moment of it being the last ever show.

"Friends"---Now the album pretty much wraps up with the final song from "The Divine Miss M". I can imagine it being the theme for a TV show, but not that TV show.

"In My Life (Single Version)"---Bette's moving version of the Lennon and McCartney classic which she recorded on "For the Boys". The difference from the album version is: it's just missing the little spoken intro.

"To Deserve You (Album Version)"---and the 1996 edition ends with this underrated moment from an underrated album.

And that brings me to the Experience of the Divine, the Divine Miss M!

Thank you for reading,

Ryan.