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On a Slow Boat to ChinaBette Midler

Released: September 30, 2003

Featuring: Barry Manilow

Songwriter: Frank Loesser

Producer: Barry Manilow Robbie Buchanan

[Intro: Bette Midler and Barry Manilow, spoken]
Hey, nice piano playin', Manilow
Thank you, Miss M
Whatcha doin' these days?
Makin' records
Really?
Yes, really
Do you still play piano for people?
Well, depends on who

[Verse 1: Midler]
Hmm, I'm gonna get you
On a slow boat to China
All to myself alone
Get you and keep you
In my arms evermore
Leave all the others
Waitin' on a faraway shore
Out on the briny
Where the moon's
Big and shiny
Meltin' your heart of stone
I'm gonna get you
On a slow boat to China
All to myself alone

[Midler and Manilow, spoken:]
Bette, I didn't know
You felt that way about me
I don't, I need a piano player
Ah, just like the old days
You're not gonna change keys
On me are yah?
Uh huh
Oh

[Verse 2: Midler, Manilow, and Both]
I'm gonna get you
(You're never gonna get me)
On a slow boat to China
(Not in a fast or slow boat at any crick)
All to myself alone
(I just get motion sick)
I'm gonna make you mine
(Ha, you'll have to stand in line)
Get you and keep you
In my band evermore
(Now there's a new attack)
Leave all the others on the shore
(For me they'd swim to China)
(To China and back)
Out on the briny
(I wouldn't like the ocean)
Where the moon's big and shiny
(Not even in a rowboat)
Melting your heart of stone
Come on what do yah say?
(You always get your way)
I'm gonna get you
On a slow boat to China
All to myself alone, together
All to myself alone

Bette Midler

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.

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