Orlando Sentinel
Published October 3, 2003
Columnist Commander Coconut
Come on-a give-a listen
I haven’t bought a new Bette Midler album in a while. The first ones were
much the best, still fun to listen to after all these years, especially
anything live (Live at Last in 1977, Mud Will Be Flung Tonight in 1985).
But I like her new CD, Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook.
Bette and her producer, Barry Manilow, were on Today Wednesday talking up
the CD and performing — doing two of the best cuts from the album,
“Come On-a My House” and “On a Slow Boat to China” (they might have done
more, but I didn’t watch Today’s third hour).
“Slow Boat,” by the way, has this fun couplet: “Out on the briny/ Where
the moon’s big and shiny.”
Two of the album’s cuts don’t work (“Hey There,” “This Ole House”), but
it’s interesting that two others, better others, are songs that Clooney
had said she didn’t much care for: “Come On-a My House” and “Mambo
Italiano.”
Midler has always liked songs, usually more obscure ones, that have
tricky or eccentric lyrics, so both “House” and “Mambo” fit that bill as
does “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening.”
Both Midler and Manilow had known Clooney for years. Manilow, who said he
was thrilled when Clooney recorded “When October Goes,” a Johnny Mercer
lyric that he set to music, came up with the idea of the tribute album
and got in touch with Midler. The two first hooked up when he was her
pianist at her famous and infamous gig at the Continental Baths in New
York. Later, famously, they had something of a falling-out, but both
said they had a fine time doing the Clooney album.
Another of Clooney’s good singer friends was Linda Ronstadt; she and
Midler duet on “Sisters,” the Irving Berlin song Rosemary sang in the
movie White Christmas.
The album begins and ends with beautiful ballads: “You’ll Never Know” and
“White Christmas.”
