written by Julie Gold

produced by Arif Mardin

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The divine Miss M here, with one of the biggest hits of her career.

Commercially, it is the biggest, even surpassing “Wind Beneath My

Wings.” Bette, of course, as we know, is an actress as well as a singer.

Sometimes she’s so convincing as the former that if you heard the

honey in her voice singing those beautiful songs, you’d hardly know they’re one and the same. Case in point: the first movie I saw Bette in was Ruthless People, though my personal favorite is Big Business, where she and Lily Tomlin both played twin sisters.

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So here’s the brain-teaser: while Bette’s an American celeb, she was not actually born in America—though she did grow up in America starting at age 14½. But her family hadn’t moved. How’s it possible? Her home is Honolulu, Hawaii. She was born in 1945, at which time the 48 contiguous United States were the only ones that counted—literally. 1959 was the year that rounded out our State count, with Alaska being admitted on January 3rd, and finally Hawaii on August 21st.

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Bette’s first film role was an extra bit part in the 1966 movie Hawaii, for which she was paid and used the money to relocate to New York. She did theater and sang in the Continental Baths house, accompanied, interestingly enough, by Barry Manilow. Barry produced her 1972 debut album, The Divine Miss M, once she was signed with Atlantic Records. Its first single, “Do You Want To Dance?”, nailed #1 on the adult contemporary chart, and she was off and running in the recording game.

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In and around her studio albums, she too recorded several title/theme songs and entire soundtracks. Of these, The Rose came first, in December ’79, followed in ’88 by Beaches (the extremely tear-jerk-y film with “Wind/Wings” in it), then For The Boys (’91) and Gypsy (’93). More solo Midler albums came in and around these projects—not to mention all her film roles. Rather the best of both worlds, she’s an amazingly talented songbird and thespian.

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The song we’re focusing on here—my personal fave of Bette’s—is the big smash hit from her 1990 record Some People’s Lives. Julie Gold wrote this song, “From A Distance,” originally in 1985 for singer Nanci Griffith, who recorded it onto her 1987 record Lone Star State Of Mind. Her version is a bit different, of course, with her very distinctive vocals and a touch of country mixed in as per her main genre. But the key is the same, and at a few points her voice even sounds like Bette’s. Julie states that the song should be interpreted however is seen fit—in terms of a spiritual tone, or otherwise. The fact that Bette’s version won Julie the 1991 Song of the Year Grammy suggests that though it may have taken a few iterations, God was certainly watching her... from... well, you know.

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Have notes to add? Let me know!

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YT:

full version

music video

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Bette’s official website