"My Mother's Eyes" by Bette Midler

Song#:  0409
Date:  11/22/1980
Debut:  85
Peak:  39
Weeks:  13
Genre:  Pop, Soundtrack



Pop Bits:  After Midler's highly successful film debut in "The Rose," with it's hit soundtrack and title song (#3), her next venture also combined film and music. "Divine Madness" was a concert film of Midler's stage show. It featured musical performances along with stand-up routines that highlighted some of the characters she brought to life like Dolores Delgado, a singing mermaid, or her imitation of the bawdy comedianne Sophie Tucker. The soundtrack album featured this single which just barely cracked the Top 40.

ReduxReview:  Although it drips with sentimentality, this is quite a pretty song. Midler does a great job as usual, but we always used to cringe and kind of make fun of her last note in the song. She does a swoop-up to the final note that a lot of singers from the 40's-50's used to do. When we would say something that include the word "eyes," we would imitate Midler.  So something like "oh, the fumes from that onion really burned my aahhyyeeeezzzz..."  But c'mon. It's Bette Midler. She is truly the Divine Miss M and always will be.

ReduxRating:  6/10

Trivia:  Double Shot!  1) Although on the soundtrack and released as a single, this song did not make it into the final cut of the film.  2) Midler had a backing group called The Harlettes. The line-up changed over the years but had included Melissa Manchester, who broke into her own solo career, and Katy Sagal, famous for her character Peg Bundy on TV's "Married with Children" (and now on the successful show "Sons of Anarchy"). Segal is in The Harlettes for "Divine Madness" as well as soon-to-be dance/R&B star Jocelyn Brown.

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