Bette Midler pays reverential homage to girl groups, from the ’30s (The Andrews Sisters) to the ’90s (TLC), in her 25th album, “It’s The Girls” (which opens at No. 3, her highest debut on the Billboard 200 to date)—with special focus on the ravishing harmonies of Motown’s bevy of singing beauties.
Midler’s voice doesn’t have the bell-like quality of, say, Barbra Streisand’s pipes, but she more than makes up for it with a presence and performing savvy that many of her more vocally gifted colleagues can only dream about.
You won’t be able to resist grooving to her sassy covers of The Chordettes’ “Mr. Sandman,” The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby,” The Andrews Sisters’ “Bei Mir Bist du Schon,” The Chiffons’ “One Fine Day,” The Marvelettes’ “Too Many Fish In The Sea,” The Boswell Sisters’ “It’s The Girls,” The Crystals’ “He’s Sure The Boy I Love” (with Darlene Love) and the cleverly “countrified” swagger of The Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love.”
The ballads of the 68-year-old diva are just as memorable, because she “fills” them with soul and a lived-in familiarity that tugs at listeners’ heartstrings: The Shirelles’ “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?,” Martha and the Vandellas’ “Come and Get These Memories” and TLC’s “Waterfalls,” rendered as a stirring evocation of motherly love. Yes, the magnificent Ms M is as Divine as ever!
Queen of Soul
For her part, the Queen of Soul also delivers exuberant renditions in her 38th studio collection, “Aretha Franklin Sings The Great Diva Classics,” which has the 72-year-old songstress shuttling between well-loved standards (Etta James’ “At Last,” Dinah Washington’s “Teach Me Tonight,” The Supremes’ “You Keep Me Hanging On”) and contemporary hits (the scrumptiously reggaefied revival of Alicia Keys’ “No One”).
We feel ambivalent about Aretha’s remake of Barbra Streisand’s “People,” but her vocal curlicues and gravelly growls in Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep,” along with her clever interpolation of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” are guaranteed to impress—as do her covers of Gloria Gaynor’s unshakable, scatting-inflected “I Will Survive” and Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman,” interpolated with her own signature hit, “Respect.”
‘Nostalgia’
Annie Lennox, Aretha’s singing partner in 1985’s female-empowerment anthem, “Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves,” does even better in her third covers album, “Nostalgia,” featuring 12 lusciously sung gems culled from the Great American Songbook.
You’ll love the haunting beauty of Lennox’s sultry remakes of the 1952 ballad, “You Belong To Me,” the 1938 show tune, “I Can’t Dream, Can’t I?,” the wistful “Summertime” and “The Nearness Of You”—and, her distinctive pipes infuse evocative theatricality to the short but soothing “Memphis in June” and the cautionary tune about racial lynching, “Strange Fruit.”
Susan’s upbeat versions
There’s more of the ho-hum same in Susan Boyle’s sixth album, “Hope”—but, the 53-year-old talent-show alumna happily heats up her generic somnolent style with upbeat versions of “Oh Happy Day” and “You Raise Me Up,” backed up by clapping, harmonizing and ad-libbing choristers.
Boyle’s most striking moments take place when she sings her retooled covers of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” Sarah McLachlan’s “Angel,” “The Impossible Dream” and Pink Floyd’s ethereal “Wish You Were Here”—another brick in SuBo’s expanding musical wall!