Experience the Divine: Greatest Hits explained

Experience the Divine: Greatest Hits
Type:greatest
Artist:Bette Midler
Cover:Divine_bette2.jpg
Caption:US edition
Released:June 22, 1993
1996 (re-release)
Genre:Vocal
Length:51:35
66:27 (re-release)
Label:Atlantic
Prev Title:For the Boys
Prev Year:1991
Next Title:Gypsy
Next Year:1993

Experience the Divine: Greatest Hits is a compilation album by American singer Bette Midler, featuring many of her best-known songs. The fourteen track compilation was released on Atlantic Records in 1993.

While several greatest hits albums with Midler had been released in the UK, Continental Europe, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand and Japan throughout the 1970s and 1980s, such as The Best of Bette (1978) and The Best of Bette (1981)—two different compilations with the same title—and Just Hits (1987), this was the first career overview to be released worldwide including the US and Canada, some twenty years after Midler recorded her first studio album for the Atlantic Records label. The album included one new recording, Midler's Emmy Award-winning rendition of "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)", sung to retiring talk show host Johnny Carson on the penultimate Tonight Show in May 1992. Experience the Divine: Greatest Hits peaked at #50 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in 1993 and was three years later certified platinum for one million copies sold in the US.

Experience the Divine: Greatest Hits was re-released in Europe, Australia and New Zealand in 1996 with a slightly altered track list, then also including two of Midler's biggest hits which for some reason had been left off the 1993 edition; "Favorite Waste of Time" and the Rolling Stones cover "Beast of Burden", both from the 1983 album No Frills. The 1996 edition also included two versions of the US hit single "To Deserve You", taken from what became Midler's final studio album for Atlantic, 1995's Bette of Roses.

Track listings

1993 edition

  1. "Hello in There" (John Prine) – 4:17
  2. "Do You Want to Dance?" (Bobby Freeman) – 2:44
  3. "From a Distance" (Julie Gold) – 4:37
  4. "Chapel of Love" (Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, Phil Spector) – 2:53
  5. "Only in Miami" (Max Gronenthal) – 3:57
  6. "When a Man Loves a Woman" (Calvin Lewis, Andrew Wright) – 4:42
    • From the 1979 soundtrack album The Rose
  7. "The Rose" (Single version) (Amanda McBroom) – 3:40
    • From the 1979 soundtrack album The Rose
  8. "Miss Otis Regrets" (Cole Porter) – 2:39
  9. "Shiver Me Timbers" (Live version) (Tom Waits) – 4:42
  10. "Wind Beneath My Wings" (Larry Henley, Jeff Silbar) – 4:52
    • From the 1988 soundtrack album Beaches
  11. "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" (Don Raye, Hughie Prince) – 2:19
    • Previously unavailable on album hit 45 version. Original studio version appears on 1972 album The Divine Miss M
  12. "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)" (Live) (Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, additional lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Bette Midler) – 4:06
    • Previously unreleased. Recorded and aired on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on May 21, 1992.
  13. "Friends" (Mark Klingman, Buzzy Linhart) – 2:55
  14. "In My Life" (Single version) (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) – 3:12

1996 edition

  1. "To Deserve You" (single remix) (Maria McKee) – 4:11
  2. "Beast of Burden" (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) – 3:48
  3. "Favorite Waste of Time" (Marshall Crenshaw) – 2:40
  4. "Hello in There" (Prine) – 4:17
  5. "Do You Want to Dance?" (Freeman) – 2:44
  6. "From a Distance" (Gold) – 4:38
  7. "Chapel of Love" (Barry, Greenwich, Spector) – 2:53
  8. "Only in Miami" (Gronenthal) – 3:57
  9. "When a Man Loves a Woman" (Lewis, Wright) – 4:54
    • From the 1979 soundtrack album The Rose
  10. "The Rose" (McBroom) – 3:34
  11. "Miss Otis Regrets" (Porter) – 2:39
  12. "Shiver Me Timbers" (Live version) (Tom Waits) – 4:42
  13. "Wind Beneath My Wings" (Henley, Silbar) – 4:53
    • From the 1988 soundtrack album Beaches
  14. "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" (Prince, Raye) – 2:19
  15. "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)" (Arlen, Mercer, additional lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Bette Midler) – 4:06
    • Previously unreleased. Recorded and aired on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on May 21, 1992.
  16. "Friends" (Klingman, Linhart) – 2:55
  17. "In My Life" (Single version) (Lennon, McCartney) – 3:12
  18. "To Deserve You" (album version) (McKee) – 5:13

Production (1993 edition)

Charts

Year-end charts

Chart (1993)Position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[1] 28
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[2] 34

Notes and References

  1. Web site: End of Year Charts – Top 50 Albums 1993 . . 2 November 2021 .
  2. Web site: Top Selling Albums of 1993 — The Official New Zealand Music Chart . . 2 November 2021 .

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