Bette Midler

Released: July 27, 1995

Songwriter: Cheryl Wheeler

Producer: Arif Mardin

I know these streets and these backyards
This barn that's falling down
We come to where they're building now
And ride our bikes around

You think I'm just a little kid
Some troubles on the way
But I knew this place before you did
Is all I've got to say

I'm only walking
Through these streets and all around
I'm only walking
I know this town

We come home through these fields at night
About a million times
I'd walk the road with my eyes closed
And all the paths besdies

And I know the boy who broke this fence
And I know his brother, too
And they's never give me half a chance
If I let on to you

I'm only walking
Through these streets and all around
I'm only walking
I know this town
I know this town

We dam the streams, we raid the shacks
And hide in boxcars on the tracks
We know these quarries in our sleep
And where they're cold and where they're deep

I'll go down to the bowling alley
And buy smokes and Dentyne
I find some loose change every day
Under that Coke machine

You check me out as you drive by
Like there was some big deal
But I know so much you'll never find
From there behind the wheel

I'm only walking
Through these streets and all around
I'm only walking
I know this town
I know this town
I know this town
I know this town

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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I Know This TownBette Midler

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