Far Out Bette Midler’s Tenacity Made This Song a #1 Hit By Tom Phelan Nov. 12, 2026
Despite languishing in the rejects bin for years, it took Bette Midler to launch one 1980 smash.
It went straight to the charts.
Jump back to the late 1970s, when Amanda McBroom aimed to break through in Los Angeles. As Bette Midler would later show, a manager’s push could help seal a record deal.
Her dream intensified when a suggestion to craft a heartland–style song came from the advisor. Billboard later cited a 1991 interview noting the tune aim and the Leo Sayer influence from her car radio.
Being spun over the airwaves was Sayer’s version of Danny O’Keefe’s ‘Magdalena’.
The line ‘Your love is like a razor’ intrigued McBroom as she shifted aside the lyric’s sentiment.
Consequently, the budding songsmith considered the universal question for her potential pop creation: What is love?
“Suddenly, it was as if someone had opened a window in the top of my head.”
McBroom recollected on her personal website.
Then, “Words came pouring in.”
I had to keep reciting them to myself.
As I drove faster and faster towards home, I wouldn’t forget them.
I screeched into my driveway.
I ran into the house, past various bewildered dogs and cats and husbands.
I sat down at the piano.
Then, Ten minutes later, ‘The Rose’ was there.
It was a curious piece. Lyrically, it wanders a trite terrain of banal metaphors about love ready to bloom. Moreover, should one be vulnerable enough, McBroom’s haste in jotting down her ballad showed omission of any bridge or chorus. It is just three verses essentially repeated. Still, she had a fully-fledged pop song to flog, if only anyone in the industry was interested.
In came Midler.
In the lead-up to her musical drama, loosely based on Janis Joplin, McBroom’s ballad was reportedly among over 3,000 submissions.
Additionally, it was sent to Paul Rothchild to wade through as music supervisor for The Rose soundtrack.
The movie’s producers loathed it and swiftly shifted aside from the whittled-down provisional 30 numbers.
Rothchild kept ‘The Rose’ close to his chest, and requested the producers give the ballad another listen.
Their position hadn’t budged.
However, Rothchild sent Midler the tape by mail, a decision that would change McBroom’s.
Midler loved it, and lobbied hard for the song to feature on the soundtrack. Eventually it played over the end credits and was released as The Rose’s second single. With its overt sentimentality and studio polish, Midler’s recording made McBroom a lot richer. Moreover, it helped establish the 1980s’ new era of adult contemporary. It peaked at number three on the newly formed Billboard chart launched the previous year.
It was a template Midler would repeat eight years later.
Moreover, it topped the Hot 100 after Beaches with her weepy ‘The Wind Beneath My Wings’ in 1988.
