Rhino will revisit the early days of Bette Midler’s incredible career with a deluxe version of her iconic 1972 debut album, The Divine Miss M. Midler will also make a “Divine” appearance this fall as a mentor for Team Blake on Season 11 of NBC’s hit television series The Voice which premieres on September 19th. Fans are also invited to preview the rare track “Do You Want To Dance – Single Mix” below.
The Divine Miss M: Deluxe Edition will be available on October 21st as a two CD set for a suggested retail price of $19.98 and includes the remastered album, plus a bonus disc of singles, outtakes and demos, as well as new liner notes written by Midler. The album will also be released digitally on the same day.
In the liner notes that accompany this new collection, Midler recalls the origin of her nickname: “I began being called The Divine Miss M around 1969, when I made my first appearance at the Continental Baths, a gay bath house located in the basement of the Ansonia Hotel, at Broadway and 74th Street in New York. My best friend, Bill Hennessy, a hairdresser I met on Fiddler on the Roof, called me that for years. It was my first night at the Baths, and before I went on, the owner, Steven Ostrow, stuck his head into the dressing room and asked how I wanted to be introduced. I said, ‘Just tell them I’m divine!’ And that’s how it started.”
The collection features a remastered version of the original album, including the Top 40 hits: “Do You Want To Dance” and “Friends,” as well as the Top 10 smash, “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.” Co-produced by Barry Manilow, The Divine Miss M was released in November 1972, reached the Top 10 on the album chart, and was later certified platinum by the RIAA. The following year, Midler won the Grammy Award for “Best New Artist.”
The Divine Miss M: Deluxe Edition features a second disc with nine additional tracks. Among those are single mixes for “Friends” and “Chapel Of Love,” as well as a version of “Do You Want To Dance” mixed by the album’s co-producer, Joel Dorn. The set also includes five unreleased recordings: an alternate version “Superstar” (penned by Leon Russell and Bonnie Bramlett); demos for “Saturday Night” and “Mr. Freedom And I,” plus the original, 1972 versions of “Old Cape Cod” and “Marahuana,” songs that were later remixed for Midler’s 1976 album, Songs For The New Depression. Her extensive catalog abounds with indelible hits like, “The Rose,” “From A Distance” and the Grammy-winner, “Wind Beneath My Wings.”
2 CD
1. “Do You Want To Dance”
2. “Chapel Of Love”
3. “Superstar”
4. “Hello In There”
5. “Am I Blue”
6. “Friends”
7. “Daytime Hustler”
8. “Leader Of The Pack”
9. “Delta Dawn”
10. “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”
11. “Friends”
1. “Chapel Of Love” – Single Mix
2. “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” – Single Version
3. “Do You Want To Dance” – Single Mix
4. “Friends” – Single Mix
5. “Old Cape Cod” – Earliest Recording & Mix
6. “Marahuana” – Earliest Recording & Mix
7. “Superstar” – Alternate Recording *
8. “Saturday Night” – Demo *
9. “Mr. Freedom And I” – Demo *
*Previously Unreleased
