Bathhouse Betty

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Bathhouse Betty
Studio album by
Bette Midler
ReleasedSeptember 15, 1998
Recorded1997–98
GenrePop
Length44:58
48:27 (Japan)
LabelWarner Bros.
ProducerArif Mardin, David Foster, Ted Templeman, Brock Walsh, Marc Shaiman, Chuckii Booker
Bette Midler chronology
Bette of Roses
(1995) 		Bathhouse Betty
(1998) 		Bette
(2000)
Singles from Bathhouse Betty
  1. "That's How Love Moves"
  2. "My One True Friend"
  3. "I'm Beautiful"

Bathhouse Betty is the ninth studio album by the American singer Bette Midler, released in 1998. Bathhouse Betty was Midler's debut album for Warner Bros. Records, after having parted ways with sister label Atlantic Records in 1995 following the moderate commercial success of her later-platinum certified album Bette of Roses. Bathhouse Betty was certified Gold by the RIAA and spawned the Billboard Dance Club chart topper "I'm Beautiful".

Background and production

The title of the album, Bathhouse Betty, refers to Midler's early career when she performed her cabaret shows at gay bathhouses like the Continental Baths in New York which led to her becoming a gay icon with a loyal LGBT following ever since. When Midler promoted the album she said in an interview, "Despite the way things turned out [with the AIDS crisis], I'm still proud of those days [when I got my start singing at the gay bathhouses]. I feel like I was at the forefront of the gay liberation movement, and I hope I did my part to help it move forward. So, I kind of wear the label of 'Bathhouse Betty' with pride."[1]

Released some twenty-five years after Midler's breakthrough with the album

high camp Mae-West-meets-the-Andrews-Sisters stage persona of the same name. The second single "I'm Beautiful"— a remake of a song by house music group Uncanny Alliance
- opens with the spoken line, "This is the Divine Miss M and I'm here to share with you some rare and stimulating insight about my cosmic fabulosity!" and effectively set the tone for the following album.

"

Mark Waldrop's "Laughing Matters", taken from Howard Crabtree's 1996 gay musical revue When Pigs Fly. "Big Socks", an original written and produced by Chuckii Booker, is a tongue-in-cheek contemporary R&B
track whose lyrics debate the supposed correlation between the size of men's feet and other body parts; "Don't brag about your body, baby, and say that you're packin' a lot, 'cause all I see besides your big feet is that you got big socks."

Bathhouse Betty was not all campiness and laughs; the album opens with the ballad "Song of Bernadette" written by

Saint Bernadette after her death. "Lullaby in Blue", which Midler described as her personal favourite on the album, was co-written by Leonard Cohen's son Adam and is a song about a woman who gave up a child for adoption: "I've never heard a pop song about a person who gives their child up and is missing the child... The first time I heard that song, I burst into tears."[2] The first single released from the album was the melancholy "My One True Friend", composed by David Foster, Carole King and Carole Bayer Sager and the lead song from the movie One True Thing which starred Meryl Streep and William Hurt
.

One track from the Bathhouse Betty sessions, Julie Gold's "Heaven", was only released as a single B-side and featured as a bonus track on the Japanese edition of the album. Gold had previously written Midler's 1990 hit single "From a Distance".

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[3]
Robert Christgau(1-star Honorable Mention)[4]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[5]

The album received mixed reviews from music critics. Michael Gallucci from AllMusic website gave the album two out of five stars and wrote that it "tries to be all things to all Bette Midler fans" including "high camp for her loyal, and early, drag cult", "straight-up covers of big-league songwriters, both veteran and modern" and "big, bad ballads for the people who made her a moderately successful Top 40 and box office draw". According to him it lacks personality and is "almost like looking at a photo album filled with vaguely familiar faces, none of which you really know that well." Robert Cristgau gave the album one star and chose "I'm Beautiful" and "Lullabye in Blue" as the best moments of the album.

Commercial performance

Bathhouse Betty reached number 32 on the

Hot Dance Club Play
chart and number 8 on Hot Dance Music/Maxi Singles Sales.

Track listing

No.TitleWriter(s)ProducerLength
1."
Mark Waldrop
Shaiman3:54
13."Heaven" (Japan bonus track; originally recorded by Nanci Griffith)Julie GoldShaiman3:29

Personnel

Production

  • musical arranger
  • Marc Shaiman – producer, arranger
  • David Foster – producer, arranger
  • Ted Templeman – producer
  • Chuckii Booker – producer, arranger, engineer
  • Brock Walsh – producer, arranger
  • Michael O'Reilly – producer, engineer
  • Carole King – arranger
  • Steve Skinner – arranger
  • Bill Schneider – arranger
  • Bill Ungerman – arranger
  • Brad Dechter – arranger
  • Kim Bullard – arranger
  • Claus Trelby – engineer
  • Jason Mauza – engineer
  • Rod Michaels – engineer
  • Alejandro Rodriguez – engineer
  • Al Schmitt – engineer
  • Lee Herschberg – engineer
  • Andy Grassi – engineer
  • Steve Griffen – engineer
  • Humberto Gatica – engineer
  • Felipe Elgueta – engineer
  • Cary Butler – engineer
  • Jeff Hendrickson – engineer, mixing
  • Kevin Clark – engineer, mixing
  • Dana Jon Chappelle – engineer, mixing
  • David Koenig – mixing
  • Frank Filipetti – mixing
  • Gloria Gabriel – production manager
  • Nick Vidar – production assistant
  • Dave DePalo – production assistant

Charts

Chart performance for Bathhouse Betty
Chart (1998) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[6] 55
Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[7] 88
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[8] 68
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[9] 89
US Billboard 200[10] 32

Certifications and sales

Region Certification Certified units/sales
United States (RIAA)[11] Gold 500,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

  1. ^ "Bette Midler". Houston Voice. 23 October 1998. Archived from the original on 9 May 2019.
  2. ^ Newman, Melinda (1998-09-05). "Midler makes Warner Bros. debut with 'Bathhouse Betty'". Billboard. Vol. 110, no. 36. pp. 15–16.
  3. ^ Gallucci, Michael. Bathhouse Betty - Bette Midler. RhythmOne. Retrieved March 13, 2021. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  4. ^ Christgau, Robert. Consumer Guide Reviews: Bette Midler. Retrieved March 7, 2019.
  5. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8
    .
  6. ^ Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (PDF ed.). Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p. 187.
  7. ^ "Top RPM Albums: Issue 7062". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
  8. GfK Entertainment Charts
    . Retrieved 30 December 2017.
  9. ^ "Bette Midler ベット・ミドラー – Japan – Albums – Bathhouse Betty バスハウス・ベティ". Oricon (in Japanese). オリコン. Archived from the original on 2013-02-18. Retrieved 2012-08-08.
  10. ^ "Bette Midler Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
  11. ^ "American album certifications – Bette Midler – Bathhouse Betty". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
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