I loved Bette Midler’s Bathhouse Betty so much that I went searching for more of same. I found someone on Half.com who had two Midler CDs for $0.75 and thought I had hit the jackpot. Well, I have been wrong before (but not that often.) I waited and waited and WAITED for my CD’s to appear in my mailbox. When they finally did I was so disappointed that I wanted to return them immediately except then I would have had to spend even more money on these mistakes. Some People’s Lives has 11 pretty mediocre tracks on it. Actually 10 mediocre tracks and one that is just so weird I don’t know what to do with it.

One More Round
Sounds like a Girl Scout cheer, but one done by a rather uninspired troop of girls. It’s pretty flat, but certainly wouldn’t get in the way if you were say having a dinner party and didn’t want your guests to listen to the music more than the conversation.

Some People’s Lives
Is totally forgettable. Seriously, I just listened to it and less than 2 minutes into the next track I cannot remember one iota of the song.

Miss Otis Regrets
I really loved this song … as sung by Nat King Cole. I have a CD of his version and I was really excited by having another version. Cole’s version is slow and stately, laden with dignity and the weightiness of the subject. After all the reason Miss Otis regrets that she won’t be able to make lunch today is because she shot her lover and was then strung up by a mob. Every time I listen to Cole’s version I have visions of that scene in To Kill a Mockingbird when the mob has gathered outside Jim’s cell and they are about to lynch him, just before Scout starts picking individuals out of the group and breaks apart the mob. Well, Midler obviously was thinking of a different movie altogether. Her version sounds more like a jazzy show tune. As far as I’m concerned it’s terrible, but then I really like Cole’s version so I guess I’m prejudiced.

Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most
I’m not sure what was going on here. It sounds like she was trying to do an anti-Spring song. Now most Spring songs are more along the lines of "oh, isn’t Spring wonderful because I’m in love." This one takes the opposite track because since the singer is not in love Spring is miserable. Can’t imagine why, I mean with the gloomy clouds and the odd snow squall here and there it sounds like perfect weather for not being in love.

Night and Day
Torch ballad. She can sing, I’ll give her that, but it’s a torch ballad and there are like five of those here.

The Girl Is On To You
This is a sweet song, but doesn’t carry enough emotion to fill a child’s beach bucket. I think they were trying to take advantage of that early 90’s sax thing, but there just isn’t enough sax to make this anything too interesting.

From a Distance
Is there a runner-up prize for trying? An effort was made here to record an environmental awareness song, but it’s a pretty uninspiring attempt. Bette isn’t talking through her hat on this one at least. She’s involved in environmental causes (her appearance on The Simpsons picking up cans on the side of the road isn’t just a joke, although Johnny Carson spinning a car in that same episode is.) This track does feature Cissy Houston and the Radio Choir of the New Hope Baptist Church so it’s a novelty at least. Or maybe at most. She did a much better job on Bathhouse Betty with Laughing Matters and I’m Hip. Sometimes irony is more effective than sincerity.

Moonlight Dancing
Yawn. I don’t think Bette was even interested here.

He Was Too Good To Me/Since You Stayed Here
Another mopey ballad. Yawn.

All Of a Sudden
Shriekingly 80’s. If you wanted to avoid it you couldn’t because there’s heavy synthesizer over the whole song. It sounds like she was trying to get on the Miami Vice soundtrack except that Miami Vice was off the air by this time, wasn’t it?

The Gift of Love
Sorry, I nodded off. Is this a new song or still the same one? It must be a different one unless my player skipped back to a track before All Of a Sudden. It’s just so easy to lose track when everything sounds so similar.

So I’m just not impressed. Even the liner notes disappointed me. There isn’t much to them and no lyrics at all. And these songs they’re all me-to-you kinds of songs so they aren’t what I expect from Bette. Unless you need something to play in the background of a dinner party, you should probably give this one a miss. Personally, I’ll be checking Bette out of the library for a test drive before I sink money into anymore, even if the money is under a dollar.


Recommended: No

Great Music to Play While: Cleaning the House