Bette Midler

Released: November 23, 1993

Songwriter: Jule Styne Stephen Sondheim

Producer: Arif Mardin Curt Sobel Michael Rafter

Some people can get a thrill
Knitting sweaters and setting still
That's okay for some people
Who don't know they're alive

Some people can thrive and bloom
Living life in the living room
That's perfect for some people
Of one hundred and five

But I at least gotta try
When I think of all the sights that I gotta see
And all the places I gotta play
All the things that I gotta be at
Come on, papa, what do you say?

Some people can be content
Playing bingo and paying rent
That's peachy for some people
For some hum-drum people to be
But some people ain't me!

I had a dream
A wonderful dream, papa
All about June in the Orpheum circuit
Gimme a chance and I know I can work it

I had a dream
Just as real as can be, papa
There I was in Mr. Orpheum's office
And he was saying to me, "Rose
Get yourself some new orchestrations
New routines and red velvet curtains
Get a feathered hat for the baby;
Photographs in front of the theatre
Get an agent and in jig time
You'll be being booked in the big time."

Oh, what a dream
A wonderful dream, papa
And all that I need is eighty-eight bucks, papa
That's what he said, papa
Only eighty-eight bucks

"You ain't gettin' eighty-eight cents from me, Rose."

"Well, I'll get it someplace else! But I'll get it! And get my kids out!"

Goodbye to blueberry pie
Good ridance to all the socials I had to go to
All the lodges I had to play
All the shriners I said hello to
Hey, L.A., I'm comin' your way!

Some people sit on their butts;
Got the dream, yeah, but not the guts
That's living for some people
For some hum-drum people I suppose
Well, they can stay and rot!
But not Rose!

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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