Billboard,com
Chart Alert for Feb 7 2004
Bette Midler re-enters the top 100, moving 121-94 (12,500 units, up 22%) with her “Bette Midler Sings The Rosemary Clooney Songbook” effort. The Divine Miss M benefits from an array of media attention, including high-profile metropolitan stops of her “Kiss My Brass” tour. During the tracking week, the concert dropped into Boston (Jan. 20), Washington D.C. (Jan. 23) and Atlanta (Jan. 25). Certainly, local media attention surrounding those events would have triggered an uptick in sales. Additionally, Midler played two nights at New York City’s Madison Square Garden on Jan. 17-18, which national TV and print outlets reported. On Jan. 14, Midler sat down with David Letterman on his “Late Show,” and on Jan. 15 yacked on “Entertainment Tonight.” National and local print publications picked up on a “Boston Globe” interview Midler did during the tracking week as well, in which she said that if her “Rosemary Clooney Songbook” tribute set wins the Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album against the late Clooney’s own “The Last Concert” that she would give it to Clooney’s family. Clooney herself never won a Grammy.
