As I've gotten older my appreciation for what might be called standards has increased exponentially. Songs such as "Mona Lisa," or "Smile," or "My Funny Valentine," or even "La Vie en Rose," really stay with me and I especially enjoy hearing the many different takes that numerous artists have on them. While I am unfamiliar with any versions of this week's tune not sung by the Divine Miss M, I still have a few years left to seek them out and give them a listen....
Bette Midler left her hometown of Honolulu in 1965 for the bright lights of New York City at the ripe old age of 20, landed a few Broadway roles later in the decade, and built a name for herself singing in gay bathhouses throughout the city. She released her first album in 1972, had her first hit, and the rest as they say, has been history. Throughout her career Midler's larger than life charisma has served her well, leading her into acting and stand up comedy. She is an Oscar away from having a career EGOT (she's been nominated twice), having won three Emmys, one Tony, and three Grammys. She's also won four Golden Globe Awards. For her musical career, Midler has released 14 studio albums (with four reaching the top ten), 41 singles (a #1, a #2, and a #3), and had twenty world tours. Earning extra bonus points from me, Midler had been a frequent and unapologetic critic of Donald Trump and his administration. Frequent readers (both of them) know I am quite the fan of female vocalists, and Midler is as good as it gets for me.
"The Glory of Love" (Midler's version) was released in 1988 on the soundtrack to the movie Beaches. It was not released as a single. The soundtrack reached #2 on the Billboard 200, and is the best selling album of her career (and also features her only #1 single, "The Wind Beneath My Wings").
If you've never seen it, the movie Beaches is overly sentimental tripe, with Barbara Hershey doing a perfect impersonation of a wooden toy soldier (emphasis on wooden) though she's supposed to be playing Midler's (whose performance is the only reason to watch) BFF since childhood. Nonetheless, I've seen it numerous times...just to watch Midler's performance of "The Glory of Love" (and I actually own the soundtrack). Originally written in 1936 by Billy Hill, the song is a simple paean, amazingly enough, to the glory that is love. But it's not sappy--Hill's lyrics make perfectly clear that love has its ups and downs, but in the end is worth the while. Midler, accompanied by a piano and a touch of strings, sings it with all the kindliness that such a topic richly deserves. Her closing--the singing slowed, almost in a whisper, is just the right lush flourish to make the song her own...and a fine way to end a tune that will be song for generations.
Lyric Sheet: "You've got to win a little, lose a little/Always have the blues a little/That's the story of, that's the glory of love..."
Enjoy:
273,000+ Dead Americans Because of Donald Trump's Incompetence
Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee
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