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...

I have many happy memories of the albums of Bette Midler, from "Experience the Divine: Greatest Hits" which I heard the same day as "Bathhouse Betty" in 1998, followed up by "The Divine Miss M", "The Rose" and "Beaches", and everything else I've been able to hear since, but "Broken Blossom" was not one of these albums until relatively recently. The fourth studio album from Bette, released 17 November 1977 on Atlantic Records the same year as her double release "Live at Last", was something I barely knew in any form at all. I just knew it had a version of Billy Joel's "Say Goodbye to Hollywood", "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" from Disney's "Cinderella", oh and of course "Paradise" from Bette's 1980 live album "Divine Madness". I'd just managed to secure myself a copy, and would be listening to this for the first time, right on the verge of a f...

For the record, in case you didn’t know already, Bette Midler's Album Discography includes: The Divine Miss M (1972), Bette Midler (1973), Songs for the New Depression (1976), Live at Last and Broken Blossom (1977), Thighs and Whispers and The Rose soundtrack (1979), Divine Madness (1980), No Frills (1983), Mud Will Be Flung Tonight! (1985), Beaches soundtrack (1988), Some People's Lives (1990), For the Boys soundtrack (1991), Gypsy soundtrack (1993), Experience the Divine: Greatest Hits (1993 reissued in 1996), Bette of Roses (1995), Bathhouse Betty (1998), Bette (2000), Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook (2003), Sings the Peggy Lee Songbook (2005), Cool Yule (2006), It's the Girls (2014) and the Hello, Dolly! Broadway Cast Recording, bringing Bette's performing career full circle in the revival of this beloved classic. Today I'm going to be looking at Bette's double album live classic "Live at Last", issued on the Atlantic Records label in June 1977...

I remember everything. I remember every little thing as if it happened only yesterday. I went into the local JB Hi-Fi to get myself a copy of the latest album from Meat Loaf, 2011's "Hell in a Handbasket", so named because Meat had thought "the whole world had gone to hell in a handbasket." The front cover is a picture of Earth facing Australia (it faces different continents depending on where you live) and the whole planet is made up out of human skulls. He's really not mincing words here, not to mention pictures. I brought the album home, which feels like a week or so before the 115th Annual Grand Final of the Australian Football League, and found myself instantly captivated. It was the first time I'd really been grabbed this way by a Meat Loaf album since "Couldn't Have Said It Better" and "Bat II" itself. It was an awe-inspiring experience. It was emotional. It was gripping. It was powerful. It had bits of rap in it. In my opi...

In 1977, Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman released their classic "Bat out of Hell" produced by Todd Rundgren on Epic/Cleveland International Records. It contains such standards as "You Took the Words Right out of my Mouth (Hot Summer Night)", "Two out of Three Ain't Bad", "Paradise by the Dashboard Light", and of course, the title song. Really, this whole album is standards. The original "Bat" tour followed over the next two years. Fifteen, sixteen years later, Meat Loaf and Jim returned to the well with "Bat out of Hell II: Back into Hell" released on Virgin/MCA Records in 1993. With Jim producing, the album yielded "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)", "Rock And Roll Dreams Come Through", and "Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are", featuring videos directed by Michael Bay. Another legendary tour would follow. The achievement of "Bat II" woul...