Bette Midler - Cool Yule
|
List Price: Our Price: $1.42 You Save: $6.56 (82%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.59 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Cool Yule
Free Music Review: Cool Yule is Way Hot!
Hit: 5 Stars
Bette? Christmas? YES!
She dabbled around the holidays past with 1991's Baby It's Cold Ouside with James Caan from For The Boys, 1992's Somewhere In My Memory from Home Alone II, 2001 Chanukah, Oh Chanukah for the HBO special T'was The Night and 2003 White Christmas from the Rosemary Clooney Tribute CD. White Christmas is included here and is a remake of From A Distance, Christmas tyle. Though it is sung beautifully and her voice is in top form throughout the CD, I'm still not quite sure how to take it as a Christmas carol? You may recall, Jewel re-recorded her hit Hands (Christmas Version) for her Christmas CD a few years back too!
This set opens with a not so common, yet beautiful Christmas song called simlply Merry Christmas. It's a great segue to her title track, the jazzy Cool Yule. Complete with Jingle Bells and a sense of humour, Bette camps it up and turns on the vocal heat on this one. At times, I think she may be trying to sound a bit like Red Peter's Holy S**t, It's Christmas!
Her duet with Johnny is the best and one of my favorite's here.
She and Johnny take off similar to the previous Bette & Barry Manilow duets, combining Winter Wonderland and Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow. They both soar and sound really great together...believe it or not!
Bette does an awesome version of What Are You Doing New Years' Eve and I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm. Other Chrtistmas favorites included are Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, I'll Be Home For Christmas and O Come, O Come Emmanuel. Last but not least is the appropriate Big Crosby classic Mele Kalikimaka. The Hawaiian Christmas song is perfect venue for the Hawaiian born Bette to tackle and entertain us with.
PS. Target added I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day as a bonus track to this wonderful collection and is well worth the effort to find and purchase!
Free Music Review: Yule is Cool!!!
Hit: 5 Stars
I had misgivings when I heard the Divine Miss M was doing a Christmas album (being a Jewish gal and all) as it seemed just a way to make some money, (I know Streisand has done two), but I was pleasantly surprised. This is one of her BEST efforts! She sounds great, the song choices are good; the arrangements are great, and the cover alone is worth the purchase! Bette wisely steers away from overly religious songs (Emmanuel is generic enough to cover both faiths). I especially liked the title tune (which I'd never heard) by Steve Allen. The duet with Johnny Mathis isnt up to her duets with Manilow, but still fun. And the Hawaiian Mele Kalikimaka is campy fun and goes back to Bette's Hawaiian roots. She covers chestnuts like I'll Be Home for Christmas and Have Yourself A Merry Christmas like a pro. The reworking of her hit, From A Distance, as a Christmas song, was inspired and the highlight of the album. Bette's version of I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm is one of the best, if not THE best version of that song I've ever heard. I was saddened to read in the liner notes that Arif Mardin, the prouducer who helped launch Midler had died, the album is dedicated to him. My only complaint is like all of Bette's releases of late, the set is too short (I found out the Target version has an extra song, too late!). Also why White Christmas again? She covered that on the Rosie Clooney tribute. The Christmas Song would have been a better choice. Aside from that quibbling, I loved it. This is one Christmas CD you will play over and over for years to come.Free Music Review: Best Bette
Hit: 5 Stars
This CD is an instant classic, showcasing both Bette's interpretive ability as well as her knack for infusing her music with an eclectic but not jarring combination of differing styles. To open with a minor and forgotten classic, "Merry Christmas", from the Judy Garland film "In the Good Old Summertime", tells us that Bette has looked outside the box in her song choice -- thank God! One after another, these songs pour out in a festive and also pensive mood, which Bette pulls off with all of her interpretive and emotional style. Standouts include: "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (wonderful arrangement; sensitive vocal); "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" (exquisite); a duet with Johnny Mathis (what a gift); the aforementioned "Merry Christmas", which should have become a standard; and, of course, "Mele Kalikimaka", a Bing Crosby / Andrews Sisters kitsch classic that has rarely been recorded by other singers. Bette's from Hawaii: perfect fit. The reinterpretation of "From a Distance" is both timely and heartfelt. There's no disguising what she intended to intone either time, but it's sensitive rather than abrasive - that's an artist. In fact, the entire CD is a non-stoppable treat. Clocking in at 37 minutes is perfect (we all know these recordings are background for our celebrations and the more variety the better). A Bette Midler Christmas album might seem a mismatched idea, but she brings it off with panache and style indeed.Free Music Review: Very Cool Indeed
Hit: 5 Stars
This album has really grown on me, play after play after play. Being Jewish Bette probably didn't feel as comfortable as Barbra Streisand or Jane Olivor singing Ave Maria and other religious songs but O come O come Emmanuelle is an inspired choice and being Catholic (me and the song - Veni Emmanuelle in Latin) I can honestly say that it is a heartfelt, moving rendition and one of her finest recorded performances. Great arrangement too.
Aside from a Christmas version of From a distance the rest is the usual Christmas fare like Have yourself a merry little Christmas, White Christmas (the definitive version!) and what not, but some less well know songs are thrown in such as Merry Christmas (Judy Garland) and Cool Yule (Louis Armstrong). The singing is as always superb and the arrangements are top notch. Sure it would be nice if the album was longer, but songs from the Cole, Como, Fitzgerald etc era were/are a lot shorter then the songs of today, adding more songs means much more time and money with arrangers and orchestras etc.
One could argue that I am obsessed with Christmas music and this album in my opinion is worthy to stand with the best of them. It may not seem like an inspired album looking at the track list (Mele Kalikimaka excepted!) but listening to this record proves was an exceptional interpreter of song Bette is. Let your heart be light.
Free Music Review: A True Holiday Classic!
Hit: 5 Stars
After nearly 40 years in show business recording 20 albums with 23 chart topping hits, Bette Midler has finally recorded a long overdue holiday album and she doesn't disappoint.
Many wonderfully arranged holiday classics are on the album such as Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, I'll Be Home for Christmas, and White Christmas. There are also some up-tempo big band treats such as Mele Kalikimaka and Cool Yule. Winter Wonderland/Let is Snow! with Johnny Mathis is amazing and will easily get you in the holiday spirit.
One of the Divine Miss M's biggest hits, From a Distance has been re-recorded into what will definitely become a Christmas classic. The new lyrics are beautifully written and will move you to tears as you listen.
Besides the arrangements, no doubt the best part of this holiday album is Bette herself. Her voice is an institution, sending chills up your spine and the hair on the back of her head stand straight as you listen to her remarkable voice of an instrument. Her pipes have never sounded better on this album and I highly recommend you treat yourself and your friends to what will definitely become a holiday classic, Cool Yule.