Bette Midler - Songs for the New Depression

Bette's Best

This is undoubtedly one of Bette Midler's recordings if not the best. It is truely classic and timeless. This CD would have a place in anyones collection. It will always be one of those to share and listen to throughout time. I would not be surprised if Bette didn't pick it as her favorite. Her voice is at her very best. June 25, 2008

Better after the first Listen

When I first bought ``Songs for the New Depression", I was shocked. The opening cut, a disco version of ``Strangers in the Night" did not sit well with me at all.....Bette had sold out!!!!
The came ``I dont want the night to end"...and I was hooked....and with ``Mr. Rockefeller", ``Old Cape Cod" and ``Shiver me Timers"......I fell in love with this record.

I am a big Todd Rundgren fan and since the disc was produced by Rundgren side man Moogy Klingman and Todd even played ona few tracks, I had a double attraction.

I still prefer this record to Bette's earlier ones.
It proved to me that she was not just a novelty act...shher voice really surrounds these songs and caresses them. September 20, 2005

Sweetly sad with just enough lightheartedness for balance

Songs For The New Depression (1976) was the first Bette album to flop commercially. The mundane millions seem to like the ordinary so I assume this album was too good for the general public. Bette's best work, much like Cher's, has been the least acknowledged, not quite commercial endeavors. Not ironically, in the mid-eighties 10 years after it's release as a single "Old Cape Cod" was a jukebox favorite at an offbeat little bar in my town.

The strength of this CD lies in the gentleness of it's delivery. It is a must have for those of you wishing to hear Bette's talents in a sweetly lamentatory mode but there's enough of Bette's bawdy side to satisfy those who are attracted to her outrageousness. My most favorite of all her albums to date and the beautiful sadness of some of the songs such as "Let Me Just Follow Behind" (my favorite Bette 'song') make this an album I still haven't tired of 28 years later.

October 24, 2004

Bette Midler does torch songs on her most underrated album

After the success of her first two albums, "The Divine Miss M" (#9) and "Bette Midler" (#6), her third album, 1976's "Song For The New Depression" (#27) was a disappointment. The album is certainly a departure from the mix of Forties Boogie-Woogie and R&B and the album does not contain a recognizable Bette Midler standard: the one single was a disco version of "Strangers in the Night," and while that went to #7 it was on the Billboard Club Play Singles chart. Still, along with "The Divine Miss M" and the soundtrack for "The Rose," I would contend that this album is one of the three essential Bette Midler albums from the Seventies.

If you need a one-word description for the key style on this album it would be torch songs. Just list to "I Don't Want the Night to End." Add to this list the ballads "Let Me Just Follow Behind" and "Tragedy". For those who need camp, Midler provides "Mr. Rockefeller" and "Marahuana." My favorites would be the duet with Bob Dylan on his "Buckets of Rain" and her version of Tom Waits's "Shiver Me Timbers." As is usually the case, the Divine Miss M corrals some major talent to play on this album, including Todd Rundgren, Rick Derringer, Eric Weissberg, and Luther Vandross. This is not one of the first Bette Midler albums that come to mind, but most of her true fans know this really is one of her best, even if it is one of her most atypical. October 4, 2003

Who remembers?

Remember when Bette declared retirement? We thought we would never hear from her again, and then SONGS FOR A NEW DEPRESSION. It's still great all these years later. January 30, 2003

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