Bette Midler

Released: September 15, 1998

Songwriter: Mark Waldrop Dick Gallagher

Producer: Marc Shaiman

Live at five and CNN
Keep us all abreast
Of breaking stories that can tend
To make us anxious and depressed
Problems with no answers
Hang on like some chronic cough
And everyday some some brand new issue
Rears it head to piss you off

Bad guys win
Optimism's wearing thin
Things are spinning out of control
Cynicism's all the fad
World events could make us mad as hatters
Almost everyday, some underpinning slips away
These aren't laughing matters

Time bombs tick
People keep on getting sick
And a nickel's not worth a cent
Wickedness and greed abound
Just as peace is gaining grounds it shatters
Hate is here to stay
And justice goes to those who pay
Friends, these aren't laughing matters

The truth is scarier by far
Than anything that Stephen King could write
The stories in the paper are
The daily small, decline and fall
Spelled out in black and white
Oh what to do, what to do
How to take a brighter view
When your noodle's totally fried
Human spirits need to be
Leavened by a little levity
So take those blues and bounce them off the wall
Keep your humor, please
Cause don't you know it's times like these that
Laughing matters most of all

Bette Midler is a Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, comedienne and actress. Named in honor of Bette Davis, Midler’s career began performing off-broadway until she developed the stage persona The Divine Miss M while singing at the world-famous Continental Baths gay bathhouse. A pre-fame Barry Manilow, the venue’s in-house piano player, produced her Grammy-nominated debut album which scored three US top 40 singles including the Grammy-nominated “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”. Midler took home the Best New Artist Grammy that year, her first of three career wins.

Throughout the 1970s, Midler found further success with music, Broadway, television and film. The Rose, Midler’s 1979 acting debut, earned her both Oscar and Academy Award nominations, and its namesake song won her a Golden Globe and another Grammy – also giving Midler her first success overseas.

The early 1980s proved less successful for Midler with four under-performing singles and a box office flop with the film Jinxed. However, the second half of the decade would prove far more fruitful with a handful of very successful films including Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Ruthless People, Outrageous Fortune and Beaches, the latter featuring a chart-topping cover of “Wind Beneath My Wings” that won Midler her third Grammy and is considered one of the greatest songs in American film history.

more tracks from the album

Bathhouse Betty

From the album

Bathhouse Betty (1998)

Bette Midler popular songs

Laughing MattersBette Midler

Bette Midler

Bathhouse Betty