Okay, probably not.
But, in all honesty, Midler – who instantly and forever doomed her credibility with all straight males for a lifetime by starring in “Beaches” and performing the schmaltz-pop ballad, “From A Distance” – has a surprising track record for slipping really cool songs onto her albums.
Okay, sure, if you had MTV in the ’80s, you probably remember that she had a video in rotation for her serviceable cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Beast of Burden”…but could you ever believe that the so-called “Divine Miss M” would’ve covered the following tunes…?
* Marshall Crenshaw’s “(You’re My) Favorite Waste of Time”
* Ben Folds Five’s “Boxing”
* Kirsty MacColl’s “In These Shoes?”
* Leonard Cohen’s “Song of Bernadette”
* Tom Waits’ “Shiver Me Timbers”
* Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach’s “God Give Me Strength”
Okay, maybe you can kind of imagine that last one…but, a few years back, she also roped Maria McKee (late of Lone Justice) into writing two songs for her: the otherwise-unrecorded-by-McKee “To Deserve You” and “The Last Time.”
I’m not saying rush out and buy all her albums…or, really, any of them in their entirety. But if you enjoy a good cover song, some of the above tracks would make surprisingly worthwhile iTunes purchases.
