Bette of Roses
| Bette of Roses | ||||
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| Studio album by Bette Midler | ||||
| Released | July 27, 1995 | |||
| Recorded | 1995 | |||
| Genre | Vocal | |||
| Length | 50:35 | |||
| Label | Atlantic | |||
| Producer |
Arif Mardin Marc Mann Robbie Buchanan Robbie Kondor Steve Skinner Bonnie Hayes |
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| Bette Midler chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Bette of Roses | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |
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| Robert Christgau |
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Bette of Roses is the eighth studio album by the American singer Bette Midler, released on Atlantic Records in 1995. It became Midler's final album for the label, twenty-three years after the release of her debut album The Divine Miss M (Midler was transferred to Atlantic's sister label Warner Bros. Records for her next two albums, then left the Warner group completely in 2002 when she signed with the Sony-owned Columbia Records). The title Bette of Roses is a play on one of the tracks, "Bed of Roses".
Bette of Roses was Midler's first full-length studio album since Some People's Lives (1990) which had been both a critical and commercial success, peaking at #6 on Billboard's album chart, #5 in the UK. In the following years she had released the soundtrack For the Boys, mainly featuring jazz standards, followed by the recording of the classic Broadway musical Gypsy.
Bette of Roses marked a change in musical direction as it exclusively included contemporary material composed by songwriters in the soft rock, country and folk genres such as Cheryl Wheeler, Maria McKee, Bonnie Hayes, Marc Jordan, Tonio K, Andy Hill, Pete Sinfield and Roger Cook. "In This Life" had previously been recorded by country singer Collin Raye on his 1992 album of the same name. According to Allmusic's review Midler is said to have personally chosen the track listing from "hundreds and hundreds of songs". Just like Some People's Lives the album was chiefly produced by Arif Mardin, but the arrangements were consequently also more guitar-based and the soundscape altogether more acoustic than synthezised, the songs chosen were mainly midtempo ballads, like "Bottomless", "As Dreams Go By" and "I Believe In You", or country rock influenced tracks, like "I Know This Town" and "The Last Time", and the set as a whole was geared towards the American adult contemporary and adult Top 40 markets rather than the pop or dance charts.
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