American Songwriter
The Story and Meaning Behind “The Rose,” the Bette Midler Movie Ballad From an Unlikely Source
By Jim Beviglia
March 20, 2025
If you hear “The Rose” on the radio today and don’t know the story behind it, you might just assume the touching ballad was a standalone-type thing written to capitalize on the vocal strengths of Bette Midler. In actuality, the song helped to define a major motion picture that gave Midler a firm footing in the movie world.
Instead of some hotshot rock star or songwriter-for-hire coming up with the song, it was written by someone who was hardly even in the music business at the time. Here’s how all those disparate elements came together to create “The Rose.”
Midler’s Big Shot
Bette Midler had earned stardom in the ‘70s for her work as a singer, both with her studio albums and live performances. But she was late to get started on her movie acting career, even though we know her today as the star of many huge movies, many of which have no connection to her singing.
For her first movie vehicle, Midler understandably chose a music-related project. The Rose was originally supposed to be titled Pearl, as it was meant to be a retelling of the Janis Joplin story. Before the movie was made, however, the Joplin family pulled their support for the project, forcing producers to adjust.
They did so by creating a fictional character who shares some of the same general biographical traits of Joplin. Midler wasn’t the first choice for the role, but once she got it she gave a bravura performance, earning her critical acclaim and an Oscar nomination. She’d also make a big impact via the title song, which came from an unlikely source.
The Song to Sum It All Up
Amanda McBroom mostly focused on acting in the ‘70s. But she did a little singing as well, performing live here and there. Even though she didn’t concentrate on songwriting, she occasionally dabbled with songs she would perform in her sporadic performances.
“The Rose” came after McBroom heard a song that featured a line defining love. She disagreed with the sentiment expressed, and she began writing down all the things that love actually was, at least from her perspective.
When McBroom heard producers were looking for songs for a Janis Joplin-inspired movie, she decided to submit “The Rose.” While several folks who were involved with the film wanted something a bit more rocking, Midler loved the song the moment she heard it. McBroom even got the opportunity to sing backing vocals on Midler’s version.
What is “The Rose” About?
The structure of “The Rose” is one of its greatest assets: three verses and no chorus. That makes every lyric count, as McBroom compares the varying notions of love. Our narrator refuses to believe wholly in the damaging aspects of the emotion, which is why she refutes it’s a flooding river or a cutting razor: I say love, it is a flower / And you, its only seed.
In the second verse, she acknowledges all the ways love, when not pursued to its fullest, can actually be a negative: And the soul, afraid of dying / That never learns to live. But the final verse finds her urging on the reticent: And you think that love is only / For the lucky and the strong.
The final lines bring us back to the hopeful outlook of the beginning of the song: Lies the seed that with the sun’s love / In the spring becomes the rose. “The Rose,” courtesy of Amanda McBroom’s tender writing, cemented Bette Midler’s status as one of the finest ballad singers around, even while helping her stake her claim as the star of yet another medium.
