Track Listing 1. I Know This Town 2. In This Life 3. Bottomless 4. To Comfort You 5. To Deserve You 6. Last Time, The 7. Bed Of Roses 8. Perfect Kiss, The 9. As Dreams Go By 10. It's Too Late 11. I Believe In You
| Details | | Contributing Artists: | Abraham Laboriel, Bobby Lyle, Chris Botti, Lani Groves, Paulinho Da Costa | | Producer: | Arif Mardin | | Distributor: | WEA | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes Personnel includes: Bette Midler (vocals); Buzz Feiten (guitar, tambourine); Daniel Jacob, Dean Parks, Michael Landau (guitar); Michael O'Reilly (E-bow guitar); Jay Dee Maness (steel guitar); Gene Orloff (concertmaster, violin); Shelley A. Woodworth (oboe); Robbie Kondor (piano, electric piano, organ, keyboards, synthesizer, programming); Steve Skinner (keyboards, synthesizer, programming); Larry J. Cohn (keyboards, synthesizer); Jerry Barnes (bass, background vocals); T-Bone Wolk, Reggie Hamilton (bass); Joe Mardin (drums, programming, background vocals); Tony Beard, Mike Baird (drums); Bonnie Hayes, Marc Mann (programming). Engineers: Michael O'Reilly, Michael O'Reilly, Jack Joseph Puig. Recorded at The New Hit Factory and Right Track Recording, New York; Andora Studios, Conway Studios and Record One, California. Bette Midler's first release in five years is a sweet, controlled, ballad-heavy confection that portrays her in a new light. No longer a brassy strumpet, the Divine Miss M is now the Pleasant Miss Bette, quirky singer of pretty songs. Fortunately, Midler has an endearing, highly expressive voice, making much of this easy listening material slightly tangy. Culling from her folk-singer/songwriter grab-bag, Midler opens BETTE OF ROSES with Cheryl Wheeler's "I Know This Town," an excellent song that brims with nostalgia, and one that could find a second life on the country charts if a Trisha, a Dolly or a Reba was to tackle it. "To Comfort You" is a sanitized and languid blues, but its companion piece, the brilliant Maria McKee-penned "To Deserve You," is a complicated off-kilter track full of musical, vocal and emotional swoops. The swirling "The Last Time," another McKee composition complete with a previously unheard of Midler falsetto, is as close to rocking out as Bette gets. The old Bette would have played the disillusionment themes of "Bed Of Roses" to full force with a sweet opening and her signature, dramatic ending; here, it is fairy-tale
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