Experience the Divine: Greatest Hits


Experience the Divine: Greatest Hits is a compilation album by American singer Bette Midler, featuring many of her best-known songs. The fourteen track compilation was released on Atlantic Records in 1993.
While several greatest hits albums with Midler had been released in the UK, Continental Europe, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand and Japan throughout the 1970s and 1980s, such as The Best of Bette and The Best of Bette —two different compilations with the same title—and Just Hits, this was the first career overview to be released worldwide including the US and Canada, some twenty years after Midler recorded her first studio album for the Atlantic Records label. The album included one new recording, Midler's Emmy Award-winning rendition of "One for My Baby ", sung to retiring talk show host Johnny Carson on the penultimate Tonight Show in May 1992. Experience the Divine: Greatest Hits peaked at #50 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in 1993 and was three years later certified platinum for one million copies sold in the US.
Experience the Divine: Greatest Hits was re-released in Europe, Australia and New Zealand in 1996 with a slightly altered track list, then also including two of Midler's biggest hits which for some reason had been left off the 1993 edition; "Favorite Waste of Time" and the Rolling Stones cover "Beast of Burden", both from the 1983 album No Frills. The 1996 edition also included two versions of the US hit single "To Deserve You", taken from what became Midler's final studio album for Atlantic, 1995's Bette of Roses.

Track listings

1993 edition

  1. "Hello in There" – 4:17
  2. * From the 1972 album The Divine Miss M
  3. "Do You Want to Dance?" – 2:44
  4. * From the 1972 album The Divine Miss M
  5. "From a Distance" – 4:37
  6. * From the 1990 album Some People's Lives
  7. "Chapel of Love" – 2:53
  8. * From the 1972 album The Divine Miss M
  9. "Only in Miami" – 3:57
  10. * From the 1983 album No Frills
  11. "When a Man Loves a Woman" – 4:42
  12. * From the 1979 soundtrack album The Rose
  13. "The Rose" – 3:40
  14. * From the 1979 soundtrack album The Rose
  15. "Miss Otis Regrets" – 2:39
  16. * From the 1990 album Some People's Lives
  17. "Shiver Me Timbers" – 4:42
  18. * From the 1977 album Live at Last. Original studio version appears on 1976 album Songs for the New Depression
  19. "Wind Beneath My Wings" – 4:52
  20. * From the 1988 soundtrack album Beaches
  21. "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" – 2:19
  22. * Previously unavailable on album hit 45 version. Original studio version appears on 1972 album The Divine Miss M
  23. "One for My Baby " – 4:06
  24. * Previously unreleased. Recorded and aired on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on May 21, 1992.
  25. "Friends" – 2:55
  26. * From the 1972 album The Divine Miss M
  27. "In My Life" – 3:12
  28. * From the 1991 soundtrack album ''For the Boys''

    1996 edition

  29. "To Deserve You" – 4:11
  30. * Original version appears on the 1995 album Bette of Roses
  31. "Beast of Burden" – 3:48
  32. * From the 1983 album No Frills
  33. "Favorite Waste of Time" – 2:40
  34. * From the 1983 album No Frills
  35. "Hello in There" – 4:17
  36. * From the 1972 album The Divine Miss M
  37. "Do You Want to Dance?" – 2:44
  38. * From the 1972 album The Divine Miss M
  39. "From a Distance" – 4:38
  40. * From the 1990 album Some People's Lives
  41. "Chapel of Love" – 2:53
  42. * From the 1972 album The Divine Miss M
  43. "Only in Miami" – 3:57
  44. * From the 1983 album No Frills
  45. "When a Man Loves a Woman" – 4:54
  46. * From the 1979 soundtrack album The Rose
  47. "The Rose" – 3:34
  48. * From 1979 soundtrack album The Rose
  49. "Miss Otis Regrets" – 2:39
  50. * From the 1990 album Some People's Lives
  51. "Shiver Me Timbers" – 4:42
  52. * From the 1977 album Live at Last. Original studio version appears on 1976 album Songs for the New Depression
  53. "Wind Beneath My Wings" – 4:53
  54. * From the 1988 soundtrack album Beaches
  55. "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" – 2:19
  56. * Original version appears on the 1972 album The Divine Miss M
  57. "One for My Baby " – 4:06
  58. * Previously unreleased. Recorded and aired on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on May 21, 1992.
  59. "Friends" – 2:55
  60. * From the 1972 album The Divine Miss M
  61. "In My Life" – 3:12
  62. * From the 1991 soundtrack album For the Boys
  63. "To Deserve You" – 5:13
  64. * From the 1995 album ''Bette of Roses''

    Production (1993 edition)

Weekly charts

Chart Peak
position
European Albums 65

Year-end charts

Chart Position
Dutch Albums 11

Certifications and sales