Jackpot - The Best Bette

Never dated, it's Amy Winehouse with out the dope or tatoos !

Bette's work was first compiled in 1992 and again in 1993 for her first compilation "Experience The Divine" the former was a domestic release and the latter, the superior collection, was for the U.K. and it's the '93 collection that iTunes features. Jumping forward to 2008 this new collection features songs licensed from Sony for an updated single disc collection and features repeats from 1992/3 way better mastered. By now Bette has recorded so much material and so many albums overlooked to create this one disc collection that a two disc anthology is really deserved. To accommodate the repeats, many post 1993 hits have been left off this collection as "I'm Beautiful," and "In These Shoes." Rhino stuck with Bette's most commercial successes such as "Beaches and "The Rose" movie soundtracks and her very popular "Some People's Lives" to create a good moving product. Again, this is a terrific compilation but could have been a very effective "Greatest Hits part two" skipping the repeats because she's recorded deserving material that should be here. The two "Album Only" tracks are from her "Rosemary Clooney Songbook" and "Cool Yule" from her Christmas album. "Something Your Heart Has Been Telling Me" is a songwriting demo; Bette is a co-writer of this beautiful ballad and the only recorded version I can think of is Roberta Flack's for her "Set The Night To Music" LP.

Wow! The lyrics in "wind beneath my wings" are awesome! I bet you are saying who is the wind beneath my wings? Well, it's your parents. Without wind you would not fly. Without parents you would not live! You should admire your parents this season even if they are deceased . For truly they are the wind beneath your wings, or atleast were at some point!

I became a fan of the Divine Miss M's in 1973 without even knowing who she was. I was wasting time as a pubescent teen, browsing through a table of discount 45's, when I picked up a single of Superstar with the B side, Do You Want to Dance. I took a chance on it and when I got home, I ended up playing it over and over and over, starting a lifetime of fascination with this woman who can belt out a song with the best and pour pure emotion into any song she sings. This represents some of her better known stuff, but I can still spend an afternoon listening to the old albums with the obscure songs too. It's rare these days to find an artist who can put so much of themselves into a song.

For all of you Bette haters. I can understand where you are coming from. If you want a perfect voice like Barbra Streisand's or Doris Day's or something like that then you are looking in the wrong place. But what real Bette fans know is that it is not about the voice as much as it is about the feeling and the soul in the music. That is what has kept her in buisness for about 40 years. Again, she is amazing, just feel the music and you will love it. My personal favorites are When a Man Love a Woman, In the Mood, From a Distance, and Hello in There, but they are all wonderful.

This is a great collection of hits from the incredible Divine Miss M. I do have to agree with the first reviewer in that there’re songs Bette has released since her first greatest hits album that should have been included. Love TKO, One Monkey Don't Stop No Show, and In These Shoes should have been included. I've never understood why songs such as Drinking Again, Big Noise From Winnetka, My Mother's Eyes, Midnight In Memphis, Shall Be Released, Stuff Like That There, and La Vie En Rose were not considered worthy to be apart of a greatest hits album. Interpretations of such songs are some of Bette’s biggest achievements. Highlights from Jackpot: The Best Bette includes, Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most, Tenderly, and the wonderfully previously unreleased, Something Your Heart Has Been Telling You. Classic Bette. Bette Midler is beyond divine. She is an American treasure. She is the last great entertainer (if you haven’t seen Bette in concert, GO) of her generation.

Why would any one think she can carry a note...Don't waste you money!