Records
Bette Midler: Vaudevillian WooWoos And Omnipresent HooHahs
Summers used to be for waking up in mid-afternoon and watching old movies. Fred Astaire tap danced all over the ceiling, James Cagney died nobly every single day, and Bette Davis championed the screen. But, just when Judy Garland was pouring out those torch songs for the boys, you’d hear: We’re goin’ to the chapel And we’re gonna get married ...
Bette Midler: Vaudevillian WooWoos And Omnipresent HooHahs
BETTE MIDLER The Divine Miss M (Atlantic)
Summers used to be for waking up in mid-afternoon and watching old movies. Fred Astaire tap danced all over the ceiling, James Cagney died nobly every single day, and Bette Davis championed the screen. But, just when Judy Garland was pouring out those torch songs for the boys, you’d hear:
We’re goin’ to the chapel And we’re gonna get married ...
The Dixiecups blasted from some box, down the block. Torn between “Chapel of Love” and “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes,” there wasn’t anything to do but choose rock’n’roll, and keep the movies around for what could be siphoned into the new form. Which turned out to be a lot more than we thought.
There’s no way to know if Honolulu summers were the same for Bette Midler. But something similar must’ve been available, or how could she have chosen the confusing array of personas and styles on her first album?