Bette Midler - Cool Yule
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CD Details
Artist: Bette MidlerEdition: Music CD
Music CD: Region Code 0
CD Release Date: 2006-10-10
Audience Rating: Unrated
Music Label: Columbia
Soundtracks:
- Merry Christmas
- Cool Yule
- Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
- Winter Wonderland/Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!; Winter Wonderland\ Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Featuring Johnny Mathis
- I'll Be Home For Christmas
- What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?
- I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm
- O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
- Mele Kalikimaka
- From A Distance
- White Christmas
Music reviews of Cool Yule
Music Review: "...Play it Santa!"
Rating: 5 Stars
In late fall 2006, Bette Midler jumped on the bandwagon and did what most successful singers wind up doing at some point in their careers, she released a Christmas album. If you like Ms. Midler's style of singing which my wife and I do, then this CD is for you, if not, well, you still might want to give it a listen if only to hear the first two tracks which are lesser known holiday songs than the other selections. They contrast well with one another and set the mood for the songbook she presents, these are my two favorite songs on the album.
The first is entitled simply "Merry Christmas" and was introduced I believe when Judy Garland sang it so tenderly in the film "In the Good Old Summertime". That is a tough act to follow, but Ms. Midler does an outstanding job with this lovely, sweetly low-keyed ballad, treating it with an expressive nostalgia that is most appealing. This neglected song deserves to get more holiday airplay that would establish its popularity; it's a shimmering Christmas ornament. Next is a total 180-degree spin away with the title track "Cool Yule" with words and lyrics by the late entertainer Steve Allen. This is a brassy, zippy, patter song, with clever, sassy lyrics and an infectious beat, and Ms. Midler gives it her all and makes it her own. If I liked nothing else on the CD, I would have felt I still got my money's worth and then some with these two numbers!
The good news is there are other pleasures to be enjoyed besides these. Every Christmas album these days is required to include either or both "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and/or "The Christmas Song". The former song is represented here, and Ms. Midler sings it with the necessary poignancy to make it work. Johnny Mathis or " the King of Christmas" as she describes him, joins her for a jaunty medley of "Winter Wonderland" and "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!". Shifting gears again, she solemnly intones "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" which when I was a boy was sung nonstop both at church and parochial school during Advent so I feel pleasantly nostalgic hearing it. A nod is given to Ms. Midler's own childhood in Hawaii as she warbles "Mele Kalikimaka", which also gives me a warm feeling since my wife and I honeymooned blissfully in Hawaii a couple of weeks before Christmas where it was ubiquitous that season. My final favorite is a bouncy rendition of "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm!"
Actually, I liked all except for the final two cuts. Her hit song "From a Distance" has new holiday lyrics awkwardly inserted that really don't add anything memorable, and her earlier rendition remains the definitive one. On the final cut "White Christmas" Ms. Midler seems weary as if she's in holiday overload and has had enough. Still this bright, easy listening holiday sampler of Bette Midler's talents with its zany cover art of her in a holly bedecked bright red fright wig is well worth the $7.98 investment at Amazon. So to borrow a quote from the song "Have a Yule that's cool, Y'all!"
Description of Cool Yule
All products are BRAND NEW and factory sealed. Fast shipping and 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.She smiles, she sizzles, she coos, she swings. So goes the lively and completely charming Christmas record by the cheeky Divine one. There's never a note out of place, a chart too excessive, or the sentiments too sentimental. Plus Midler's tasty stable of producers and arrangers have packed the big band and stringed arrangements with their own musical warmth against Midler's smart song choices and contagious vocal performances. Cool Yule mixes the standard traditional pop pieces--like Steve Allen's snappy title track, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," and "I'll Be Home for Christmas"--with the sole hymn, "O Come, O Come, Emanuel." But nobody's picking up this stocking stuffer because they want to go to church. Bette's got merrymaking on her mind more than anything else. Her duet with Johnny Mathis on "Winter Wonderland/Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" is as much fun as her "From a Distance (Christmas Version)" is a somber and sobering antiwar statement. How she can move from sounding girlish and playful to sophisticated and jazz-smart in the space of one note to the next may not be supernaturally inspired, but it sure is fun to hear the joyful sounds she makes. From her lips to your ears, you gotta love it. --Martin Keller
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