Songs for the New Depression


Songs for the New Depression is the third studio album by the American singer Bette Midler, released in early 1976 on the Atlantic Records label. The album was released on CD for the first time in 1990. A remastered version of the album was released by Atlantic Records/Warner Music in 1995. A limited edition remastered version of the album was released by Friday Music in 2014.

Production

The album which saw her making her debut as a composer, as well as co-producer and sound engineer, features contributions from musicians as diverse as soul singer Luther Vandross, Todd Rundgren and Brazilian jazz accordionist Sivuca. Songs for the New Depression includes Midler's version of Tom Waits' "Shiver Me Timbers", a duet with Bob Dylan, "Buckets of Rain", and opens with her discofied take on Frank Sinatra's standard "Strangers in the Night" which became a No. 7 hit on the US dance chart. Two of the tracks, "Old Cape Cod" and "Marahuana", were originally recorded during the sessions for the 1972 debut album The Divine Miss M but remixed three years later by producers Lew Hahn and Arif Mardin for Songs for the New Depression.

Reception

The album peaked at No. 27 on the Billboard albums chart.
Nick Kent of NME said, "This is easily the most infuriating album I've forced myself to co-exist with. I'm openly contemptuous of the motif - that of 'the new depression.' The arrangements are all exquisitely slick and Ms. Midler stays admirably, intimately in tune throughout. I even like parts of it despite my better judgment."

Track listing

Side A

  1. "Strangers in the Night" - 3:22
  2. "I Don't Want the Night to End" - 3:53
  3. "Mr. Rockefeller" - 4:05
  4. "Old Cape Cod" - 2:50
  5. "Buckets of Rain" - 4:00
  6. "Love Says It's Waiting" - 1:41
  7. *From ''The Promise Suite''

Side B

  1. "Shiver Me Timbers"/"Samedi et Vendredi" - 6:25
  2. "No Jestering" - 3:59
  3. "Tragedy" - 3:06
  4. "Marahuana" - 2:30
  5. "Let Me Just Follow Behind" - 3:36

Personnel

Production