| Bette
Midler, counts singing as only one
of her talents; at times, since 1972,
when she first came to national
recognition, it has seemed to be just a
small part. Still, she has managed to
score a number of major hits in a
roller-coaster career as a recording
artist. Born in Paterson, NJ, and raised
in Hawaii, Midler early on showed an
interest in singing and acting, and by
the '60s she had moved to New York and
gotten a role in the long-running
Broadway hit Fiddler on the Roof. Midler
developed a nightclub act that included
comedy and singing of a variety of kinds
of material, including show tunes, pop
hits, and even a takeoff on the Andrews
Sisters, and appeared with increasing
frequency in New York with her
accompanist, Barry Manilow. She was
signed to Atlantic Records and released
The Divine Miss M (1972), which went
gold and included a Top Ten single cover
of the Andrews Sisters' "Boogie Woogie
Bugle Boy." Bette Midler (1973) was
similarly successful.
Midler's starred in the film The
Rose, a fictional account of the life of
Janis Joplin, and the title track became
a Top Ten hit. 1980 saw the release of
Midler's concert film, Divine Madness,
and her best-selling book, A View from a
Broad. Her next film, Jinxed (1982),
however, was a major flop, and
subsequent records didn't fare well.
Midler made a cinematic comeback with
Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986),
but it wasn't until 1989 that she had
another pop hit, when her version of
"Wind Beneath My Wings" from her film
Beaches became a number one hit. This
rejuvenated her singing career, and
1990's Some People's Lives became a Top
Ten, million-selling album, with the
song "From a Distance" hitting number
two. Midler's soundtrack album to her
1991 film For the Boys was also a
gold-selling hit.
Midler appeared in a television
production of the Broadway musical Gypsy
that produced a charting soundtrack
album in 1993 following the release of
her million-selling hits collection
Experience the Divine. The gold-selling
Bette of Roses (1995) was her first
regular album release in five years. Her
1996 film The First Wives Club was a
major box office success. In 1998, she
switched to Warner Bros. Records and
released Bathhouse Betty, which went
gold. Midler, then the 54-year-old
singer/actress turned to television,
developing a half-hour network comedy
series based on her own life. Though it
didn't last long, Bette premiered on CBS
on October 11, 2000; six days later, she
released a second Warner Bros. album,
also called Bette. |
