Rhino
Quadio Spotlight: Bette Midler, “The Divine Miss M”
By Joe Marchese
Oct 4, 2024
Way back in Ye Olden Days of 2011, The Second Disc advocated for the release of the original quadraphonic mix of Bette Midler‘s 1973 debut, The Divine Miss M. Well, lo these many years later, Rhino has granted our wish, and it’s been released on Blu-ray as part of the label’s still-growing Quadio series of four-channel reissues. In Craig Anderson’s stellar remaster, it’s happily as good as we remember it! The 4.0 mix by Atlantic Records veteran Tom Dowd, a legendary producer in his own right, is immersive from the get-go. The opening track, Barry Manilow’s sultry, slowed-down rearrangement of Bobby Freeman’s “Do You Want to Dance,” envelops the listener from the very first notes, with Ralph MacDonald’s soft percussion, Ron Carter’s bass, and Manilow’s piano all discretely placed for maximum effect. Every hushed whisper of Bette’s breathy vocal gains newfound clarity, and the call-and-response with the background vocalists bounces from front to back. The plush strings provided by Thom Bell deserve their place up front, but never overwhelm the lead vocals. As an added bonus, the song is significantly extended from the original album version with more of Midler’s ad libs.
“Do You Want to Dance” sets the stage for a quad mix that’s demonstration disc-worthy. It doesn’t hurt that the original album remains a master class in song interpretation and personalization. By bending songs of various genres and eras to her own singular style – aided and abetted by musical director/producer Manilow; his co-producers Ahmet Ertegun and Geoffrey Haslam; and original producer Joel Dorn – Midler released an album that defined her persona and launched her on a remarkable, multi-faceted career that continues to this day.
Dowd and his engineer added reverb to many of the vocals, giving the album a “wet” quality that works beautifully in the surround format. Manilow’s dynamic productions of “Chapel of Love” and “Leader of the Pack” bask in the added dimension as does the dramatic “Superstar,” using the intimate voice-and-piano combination up front as a starting point and building to the appearance of strings (in front) and brass (in the rear channels). (Though Midler’s rendition inspired Richard Carpenter to arrange the Leon Russell/Bonnie Bramlett song for his sister Karen and their definitive, immaculate record, Bette has the edge when it comes to communicating the sheer sexuality of the unexpurgated lyric.) The funky “Daytime Hustler,” another of Manilow’s productions on the LP, is leaner but no less sonically interesting with congas and guitar in the back and organ and lead vocals in the front. The gospel grandeur of “Delta Dawn,” another Midler and Manilow stage specialty, is even more thunderous.
As well as helming “Do You Want to Dance” and the album’s quieter moments such as “Am I Blue” and John Prine’s moving “Hello in There,” Joel Dorn produced the album’s first version of “Friends.” While Manilow correctly identified that a stronger arrangement could turn Buzzy Linhart’s song into a hit (and eventually an anthem), the initial take has its charms – and even more so in Quadio. The track’s multiple vocal overdubs are doled out among the speakers – Midler starts the song in the rear right channel – making the various spoken ad libs, quips, and one-liners much clearer than on the stereo mix. The familiar Manilow version of “Friends” shines, too, with the joyous background vocals by The Harlettes, a.k.a. Melissa Manchester, Gail Kantor, and Merle Miller, plus Manilow and bassist Michael Federal cutting through with clarity. The strings are more prominent than in stereo, too, providing a darker shading to the upbeat melody that later became a defiant anthem for the generation stricken by the scourge of AIDS.
Dorn’s production of “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” (featuring Dick Hyman on piano) is surprising, even within the audaciously immersive context, as Midler’s multiple Andrews Sisters voices travel from speaker to speaker. It’s not the obvious choice and maybe not even the most effective, but it keeps the listener in the center of an all-encompassing soundscape, as if onstage with a constantly moving Miss M. Note that “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” features some unique vocals and instrumentation to both the original LP version (which was in mono on the otherwise stereo LP, to capture the retro feeling) and the subsequent, partially re-recorded hit single version.
For those of us (myself included) who didn’t get to experience the live Midler in her early days, the Quadio presentation of The Divine Miss M might be the next best thing as it places the listener in the center of an eclectic, alternately rollicking and melancholy party in the studio. It also ranks as one of the strongest Quadio releases yet. For more on The Divine Miss M, check out our Reissue Theory which goes into detail about the album’s history, and give a spin to the 2016 expanded Deluxe Edition.
The Divine Miss M is available now directly from Rhino.com!
Formats: Blu-Ray Audio
Genre: Classic Rock, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal
Tags: Bette Midler
JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with Real Gone Music, has released newly-curated collections produced by Joe from iconic artists such as Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Chet Atkins, and many others. He has contributed liner notes to reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them Nat “King” Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, B.J. Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, and Andy Williams, and has compiled releases for talents including Robert Goulet and Keith Allison of Paul Revere and the Raiders. Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray. Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.
