Bette Midler - No Frills (1983)

"No Frills" is the sixth studio album by American singer Bette Midler, released on Atlantic Records in 1983. No Frills was Midler's first studio album in four years, following the movies The Rose, Divine Madness! and the ill-fated Jinxed!. The rock and new wave influenced album was produced by Chuck Plotkin, best known for his work with Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, and included three single releases; the ballad "All I Need to Know", a cover of Marshall Crenshaw's "My Favourite Waste of Time" and Midler's take on the Rolling Stones classic "Beast of Burden". While No Frills surprisingly became Midler's second lowest-charting album in the US, peaking at #60 on Billboard (her 1979 disco album Thighs and Whispers #65), it became her best-selling studio album to date in both Continental Europe and Scandinavia; in West Germany it reached #15, in the Netherlands #10, in Norway #2 and in Sweden No Frills managed to reach the top spot of the albums chart, even outselling the Rose soundtrack and the "Beast of Burden" single was indeed a Top 10 hit in most parts of Europe. The promo video for the song, made during the early MTV era, featured Mick Jagger in a cameo role playing Midler's boyfriend. The soundtrack to the video including the spoken dialogue (with Midler famously telling Jagger "Just stay long enough to hear me sing your song. I sing it better than anybody." Jagger replies: "Well almost anybody....") was released on the B-side of the 12" single in Europe. In September 1984 the video for "Beast Of Burden" was nominated for three MTV Video Music Awards for Best Female Video, Best Choreography, and Best Stage Performance Video. Midler recorded several songs for the album that did not make the final cut. Among these were Bruce Springsteen's "Pink Cadillac" (later covered by Natalie Cole) "Broken Bicycles", the Jonathan King-written "Everyone's Gone To The Moon," and Peter Gabriel's "Here Comes The Flood" - all of which she had performed live on her 1982-1983 concert tour De Tour, later released on VHS/DVD as Art or Bust. The ballad "All I I Need To Know", composed by renowned songwriting team Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil and Tom Snow, which had peaked at #77/39 on the US Singles and A/C charts with Midler in late 1983, was some five years later covered by Linda Ronstadt on her album Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind. Ronstadt's Grammy winning version of the song was recorded as a duet with Aaron Neville and retitled "Don't Know Much" and then became a #2 hit on the US singles chart and #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart and a worldwide hit single. "My Favourite Waste of Time" was in turn covered by Scottish singer Owen Paul in 1986 and was a Top 5 hit in the UK. When Midler's greatest hits compilation Experience the Divine was released in 1993 only one song from No Frills was included; "Only In Miami" - an album track which never was a single either in the US or in Europe. A second edition of the compilation with a revised track list, released in 1996, however added both "Beast of Burden" and "My Favourite Waste of Time".


Tracks:

01. "Is It Love" - 04:45
02. "Favorite Waste Of Time" - 02:41
03. "All I Need To Know" - 04:07
04. "Only In Miami" - 04:33
05. "Heart Over Head" - 02:49
06. "Let Me Drive" - 04:04
07. "My Eye On You" - 04:04
08. "Beast of Burden" - 03:46
09. "Soda and A Souvenir" - 03:21
10. "Come Back Jimmy Dean" - 03:46