Bette Midler's Blog, page 146

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oooops! Make that WE girls! Cheeze. It must be the Ativan. My grammar is my strongest suit.

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Us girls love a good makeover, so the site got one too. There’s a pre-order thing there as well http://t.co/lyFUrGw9ck #ItsTheGirls

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Yours truly is announcing my first album in years honoring some of the great girl groups of all time!! #ItsTheGirls http://t.co/SimHbnN9bC

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Harmonies and Hair!!!

FELLINI HULAWEENI

FELLINI HULAWEENI

Friday, OCTOBER 31, 2014

The Waldorf Astoria

301 Park Avenue, New York City

6:30 p.m. Cocktails sponsored by TD Bank Group

7:30 p.m. Dinner

NYRP’s annual masquerade ball, Hulaween, is always a delicious balance between raucously fun and frighteningly ghoulish. Themed Fellini Hulaweeni, this year’s gala promises to be very… Mambo Italiano. We’ll be honoring long-time environmental stewards, Shelly and Tony Malkin with the Green God Award and Sarah Nash with the “Wind Beneath My Wings” Leadership Award. Joined by Mistress of Ceremonies Judy Gold and Costume Contest Judge Michael Kors, and featuring a musical performance by none other than Earth, Wind & Fire.

Federico Fellini (January 20, 1920 – October 31, 1993) was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for his distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness, he is considered one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of the 20th century. Check him out on YouTube or IMDb. We are thrilled to celebrate him at Fellini Hulaweeni on the 21st anniversary of his death.

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Joan Rivers’ Facebook posthumously endorsed iPhone6! She’d be a great new Siri. “You want directions? Go to the mall and get a new outfit.”

It’s The Girls!

From the very beginning of my recording career I insisted on pretending that I was a girl group. I often sang all the background parts as well as the leads, just for the fun of it, as I did on “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”. On my first album, The Divine Miss M I covered the Dixie Cups “Chapel Of Love”, although I didn’t sing those harmonies myself. I thought it was the silliest, most charming song, and when I pictured myself sashaying down the aisle with my singing bridesmaids in tow, I always fell out. The Dixie Cups were out of New Orleans, and their seminal hit “Iko Iko” is still played everywhere all the time. Jolly, good-natured, except for the part where the singer threatens to set the listener on fire, it is infectious as only nursery rhymes can be. The girls learned it from one of their grandmothers, and it is irresistible.

On that same album, we recorded “The Leader Of The Pack”, which also lent itself to ridiculous staging, which of course, I loved, although I’ll never forget the time my choreographer took a pair of scissors to my black leather jacket because she didn’t think it was authentic enough. People, what I have endured for my art.

Still, the Shangri-Las, even though I sent them up, were the real thing, and had a major effect on the pop music of the day. The 2-minute movie they were selling had a beginning, middle and a tragic ending, of course. Like every other teen, when I heard it, I sobbed.

On my third, ill-fated record, Songs For The New Depression I sang all the parts on “Old Cape Cod”, “Samedi et Vendredi” (Welcome to my Nightmare) and a song given me (or maybe I stole it) by Garland Jeffries called “No Jestering”, that came from Jamaica, I think.

More recently, on Bette I covered some of the great male groups, the Manhattans’ “Shining Star” and the temps’ “Just My Imagination”. Every couple has their song, and Martin’s and mine is “Have You Seen Her”, which always reduces us to tears, and I am not joking….next year, “Ooh, Child”, or maybe something by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes…

But honestly, there are so many great songs to sing, and I always count myself lucky to find one. This year, I recorded one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard, called “Talk To Me of Mendocino” originally written and sung by Kate and Anna McGarrigle. The first time I heard it…well, you can imagine.

So that’s a little history on my background with backgrounds and girl groups. Like they say in 20 Feet From Stardom, people usually sing along with the backgrounds, not the lead. One always suspects they are having way more fun. So….ooohhh……waaaahhhhhh!!!!

On my first album, The Divine Miss M I covered the Dixie ...

On my first album, The Divine Miss M I covered the Dixie Cups “Chapel Of Love”, although I didn’t sing those harmonies myself. I thought it was the silliest, most charming song, and when I pictured myself sashaying down the aisle with my singing bridesmaids in tow, I always fell out. The Dixie Cups were out of New Orleans, and their seminal hit “Iko Iko” is still played everywhere all the time. Jolly, good-natured, except for the part where the singer threatens to set the listener on fire, it is infectious as only nursery rhymes can be. The girls learned it from one of their grandmothers, and it is irresistible.

On that same album, we recorded “The Leader Of The Pack”, which also lent itself to ridiculous staging, which of course, I loved, although I’ll never forget the time my choreographer took a pair of scissors to my black leather jacket because she didn’t think it was authentic enough. People, what I have endured for my art.

Still, the Shangri-Las, even though I sent them up, were the real thing, and had a major effect on the pop music of the day. The 2-minute movie they were selling had a beginning, middle and a tragic ending, of course. Like every other teen, when I heard it, I sobbed.

On my third, ill-fated record, Songs For The New Depression I sang all the parts on “Old Cape Cod”, “Samedi et Vendredi” (Welcome to my Nightmare) and a song given me (or maybe I stole it) by Garland Jeffries called “No Jestering”, that came from Jamaica, I think.

More recently, on Bette I covered some of the great male groups, the Manhattans’ “Shining Star” and the temps’ “Just My Imagination”. Every couple has their song, and Martin’s and mine is “Have You Seen Her”, which always reduces us to tears, and I am not joking….next year, “Ooh, Child”, or maybe something by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes…

But honestly, there are so many great songs to sing, and I always count myself lucky to find one. This year, I recorded one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard, called “Talk To Me of Mendocino” originally written and sung by Kate and Anna McGarrigle. The first time I heard it…well, you can imagine.

So that’s a little history on my background with backgrounds and girl groups. Like they say in 20 Feet From Stardom, people usually sing along with the backgrounds, not the lead. One always suspects they are having way more fun. So….ooohhh……waaaahhhhhh!!!!

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UB meeting this week to discuss Climate Change after hottest summer ever. At this rate we’ll be holding Summer Olympics in Antarctica soon..

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@johnhollioake go fuck yourself