HiRez Poll Midler, Bette - THE DIVINE MISS M [Blu-Ray Audio]

[Victor Bisio]

I guess I should clarify. Some of the SONG SELECTIONS are juvenile. Not her. When you hear Am I Blue vs Friends, there's a clear distinction. But it was a great album to show everything she can do. Again, I gave it a 10.

Again, nothing juvenile about those songs . They were big pop hits from other eras, that's all. Old and young alike.

 

[Uncle Obscure]

If you like The Devine Miss M album, you will absolutely fall head over heels in love with this Quadio disc. Plain and simple, it boasts some of the best sound ever created using the vintage Q4 process and is a total 10 in my book. The mix is a constant surprise as it envelopes you with instruments and vocals that come at you from every direction. Sitting in my center "sweet spot" while listening, I get that tingly "I'm in the studio" feeling you only get from the absolute, very best surround mixes. Even if you are not a Bette fan, you owe it to your ears to give this one a listen. From a technical standpoint alone, it is a mindblower!

 

[quicksrt]

Just curious, I don't ever remember seeing the Atlantic Records vinyl label for Midler, Devine Miss M, this color before, was it used on other artists and did her original release have the regular green / red style ????

Atlantic, Atco, and often Elektra used color layouts for quad albums that differed from the same stereo label releases. We are seeing the authentic period quad label designs for most of these Rhino releases.

 

[Victor Bisio]

If you like The Devine Miss M album, you will absolutely fall head over heels in love with this Quadio disc. Plain and simple, it boasts some of the best sound ever created using the vintage Q4 process and is a total 10 in my book. The mix is a constant surprise as it envelopes you with instruments and vocals that come at you from every direction. Sitting in my center "sweet spot" while listening, I get that tingly "I'm in the studio" feeling you only get from the absolute, very best surround mixes. Even if you are not a Bette fan, you owe it to your ears to give this one a listen. From a technical standpoint alone, it is a mindblower!

 

[steelydave]

Once again, the photos of the master tapes in the booklet have yielded something interesting in the form of this scrawled signature on the 'Engineer' line:



On the original quad LP, there was a credit on the back cover that said 'Remixed for QuadraDisc by Tom Dowd' but it's my belief that because they only wanted to credit one person, if a producer and engineer worked on an album the more senior of the two (ie the Producer) would get the credit, whereas if it was just remixed by an engineer on his own, he'd get the credit. This is definitely the case with the self-titled Spinners album, which credits Thom Bell on the jacket, but which Arthur Stoppe told me that Joe Tarsia actually did the engineering, supervised by Bell and Linda Creed.

(Also on a related sidenote, Darrell Johnson, who cut a lot of these CD-4 LPs at the JVC Cutting Center in Hollywood, told me that Atlantic didn't want to put any quad remix credits at all on the jackets, but that Tom Dowd and himself twisted their arm and they relented - that's why the Atlantic LPs have a credit, whereas most of the Elektra and Warner quad LPs don't.)

It turns out that this scribbly signature above is of Clair D. Krepps (h/t to @J. PUPSTER for decoding the signature for me) a veteran recording engineer of more than 30 years who was Atlantic Records chief engineer at the time.

Krepps passed away in 2017 at the ripe old age of 99, from his obituary:

"He served in the United States Navy in WWII specializing in early radar systems for naval aviation.

After the war Clair and his wife Leah settled in Bergenfield NJ where he served 2 terms on the Board of Education during the design and construction of the new Bergenfield High School.

A charter member and past governor of the Audio Engineering Society he helped establish recording standards for the record industry. An early pioneer of multi-track tape recording and mastering he worked at Capitol Records, MGM and others. Clair established Mayfair Recording Studios in NYC and with his brother Edgar designed and built the first 8-track recording console. After selling Mayfair to United Artists Clair served as Chief Engineer for Atlantic Records, and later taught at the Jon Miller School of Recording Arts in Bath, Pennsylvania.

Among the many industry awards he received including a Grammy for mastering Robert Flack's "Killing Me Softly With His Song", he was proudest of his historic Grammy for recording Nat King Cole's "Christmas Song" in 1946."

Krepps doesn't have any other quad engineering credits to his name (which makes this all the more interesting) but his name does come up in an article in the March 3rd, 1973 issue of Billboard (starting on pg.1, continuing on pg.10) which announced WEA's commitment to CD-4 for their quad LP releases. They were unsatisfied with the matrix systems (SQ in particular) and spent more than 18 months doing technical analysis and evaluation, and Krepps was part of that team:




(retirement notice from the 4/13/74 issue of Billboard)


The only curious things is that most of Krepps credits from the late '60s and early '70s are for mastering rather then engineering or mixing, so it's possible that the master tape photo in the Quadio booklet is of an EQed production or cutting master used for vinyl or tape duplication, in which case Krepps may have been the quad mastering engineer rather than the mixing engineer, but either way it's kind of cool to be able to attach yet another previously-unknown person (and one clearly involved at a high level with WEA's quad program according to the snippet above) to a quad album release.

 

[mrcond]

On the first version of "Friends," Bette Midler's vocals seem to be primarily in the right rear channel, rather than the front channels. Has anyone noticed this? Is it possible my audio setup needs adjustment?

Same for me. That was clearly intentional.

 

[Matt Wilson]

9

Almost like a Linda Ronstadt album where a woman sings a bunch of songs written elsewhere, but most of these cuts are already famous. The sound is quite good, but it didn't blow me away like I'd been told. Still, an easy 9 because none of these Rhino quadios are anything less than that.

 

[4-earredwonder]

9

Almost like a Linda Ronstadt album where a woman sings a bunch of songs written elsewhere, but most of these cuts are already famous. The sound is quite good, but it didn't blow me away like I'd been told. Still, an easy 9 because none of these Rhino quadios are anything less than that.

I saw Bette Perform the entirety of The Divine Miss M live with Barry Manilow on piano and Melissa Manchester as one of her back up singers and the show was positively ELECTRIC!

 

[jaybird100]

Same for me. That was clearly intentional.

You're supposed to hear 4 Bettes, one from each speaker. At one point, all at once.

 

[par4ken]

Back in the day I would not touch this with a ten foot pole. In fact when "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" would come on the radio I would usually flip the station. Back then It was not my style of music but it helps to show just how varied top 40 music radio was back in those days!

In more recent years I picked up a CD-4 copy and made a good sounding digital transfer. This disc is obviously a sonic upgrade. Surround mix and sound quality are excellent.

I would almost like to call this a concept album being filled with "oldies" although Delta Dawn and Superstar were current at that time of release. Interesting how some tracks like "Do You Want To Dance?" are sped up while others (Delta Dawn and Superstar) are slowed down.

Back to the "hit", Bugle Boy it is rather cool with the vocal smoothly panned around the room. The quad treatment really helps to make that selection.

 

[beerking]

Another rock in a hard place listener back in the day.
But 50 years on and my musical tastes have really broadened out.
It's only Opera that still doesn't do it for these uncultured ears
This mix is Divine
No Bête Noire here...
A well deserved 10

 

[jaybird100]

Bette Midler is certainly an acquired taste, Markie, but glad you enjoyed her first recording for Atlantic. Only wish her second and IMO, equally impressive album simply entitled BETTE MIDLER again arranged/conducted by Barry Manilow and co produced with Arif Mardin would get the same QUAD treatment

I don't think this one sold as well as "Divine Miss M" did, which is possibly why it never got the quad treatment. That, plus her previous album had more possibilities for some quad fun than this one did.

 

[bktouchstone]

I won’t give this a point score. It’s pretty clear I am an “outlier” statistically and I don’t want to let that take away from the fun Bette Midler fans may experience with this. If you are not a fan of BM, I don’t think this will change your mind. Anyway, here goes. I hated this. Probably because I am not and never have been a Bette Midler fan. Never understood the appeal of “The Rose” or “Beaches” and her voice always got on my nerves. I was hopeful after reading the raves that this would be different, but sadly no. Sometimes she just seems to drag out words and notes unnecessarily to perhaps dramatize them but for me it just subtracts. The song selection is mid 70s dreck. Listening to “Friends” I thought “If after school specials were musicals they would sound like this.” Never wanted to hear “Delta Dawn” again. Leader of the Pack never needed to be redone either. “Superstar” which talks about someone playing their sad guitar doesn’t seem to have a guitar in it, But there is a prominent piano and a harp. Most of the time her voice is immersed in reverb, so much so I swear I could still hear it after I pressed the “stop” button. There are a few diamonds: “Am I Blue?” “Hello in There” and “Boogie Woogie” are nice. There isn’t enough shelf space inside my house for my entire collection, the “less appealing” of which is in the garage which is not climate controlled. This will fit right in there.

 

[Clement]

I won’t give this a point score. It’s pretty clear I am an “outlier” statistically and I don’t want to let that take away from the fun Bette Midler fans may experience with this. If you are not a fan of BM, I don’t think this will change your mind. Anyway, here goes. I hated this. Probably because I am not and never have been a Bette Midler fan. Never understood the appeal of “The Rose” or “Beaches” and her voice always got on my nerves. I was hopeful after reading the raves that this would be different, but sadly no. Sometimes she just seems to drag out words and notes unnecessarily to perhaps dramatize them but for me it just subtracts. The song selection is mid 70s dreck. Listening to “Friends” I thought “If after school specials were musicals they would sound like this.” Never wanted to hear “Delta Dawn” again. Leader of the Pack never needed to be redone either. “Superstar” which talks about someone playing their sad guitar doesn’t seem to have a guitar in it, But there is a prominent piano and a harp. Most of the time her voice is immersed in reverb, so much so I swear I could still hear it after I pressed the “stop” button. There are a few diamonds: “Am I Blue?” “Hello in There” and “Boogie Woogie” are nice. There isn’t enough shelf space inside my house for my entire collection, the “less appealing” of which is in the garage which is not climate controlled. This will fit right in there.

I enjoyed reading your review. Rather than the garage, may i suggest a QQ Door Prize giveaway . . . or maybe offer it up for sale?

 

[Infomas]

9

Almost like a Linda Ronstadt album where a woman sings a bunch of songs written elsewhere, but most of these cuts are already famous. The sound is quite good, but it didn't blow me away like I'd been told. Still, an easy 9 because none of these Rhino quadios are anything less than that.

"Almost like a Linda Ronstadt album where a woman sings a bunch of songs written elsewhere". You say that like it's a bad thing. We are all so used to bands playing their own music, we forget that for most of pop music history, singers were just interpreters of over people's music. Linda was in a league of her own, just an amazing talent. Bette, can be overly dramatic, but she too makes the songs hers. Also, not all of the songs were famous. Bette beat Helen to Delta Dawn by 2 days. The Carpenters were influenced by Bette's version of Superstar. I remember when this album came out (saw that amazing tour as well), and other than BWBB, the songs were either unknown to most of us, or she changed them dramatically. Just wanted to clear that up. Carry on.

 

[Victor Bisio]

I won’t give this a point score. It’s pretty clear I am an “outlier” statistically and I don’t want to let that take away from the fun Bette Midler fans may experience with this. If you are not a fan of BM, I don’t think this will change your mind. Anyway, here goes. I hated this. Probably because I am not and never have been a Bette Midler fan. Never understood the appeal of “The Rose” or “Beaches” and her voice always got on my nerves. I was hopeful after reading the raves that this would be different, but sadly no. Sometimes she just seems to drag out words and notes unnecessarily to perhaps dramatize them but for me it just subtracts. The song selection is mid 70s dreck. Listening to “Friends” I thought “If after school specials were musicals they would sound like this.” Never wanted to hear “Delta Dawn” again. Leader of the Pack never needed to be redone either. “Superstar” which talks about someone playing their sad guitar doesn’t seem to have a guitar in it, But there is a prominent piano and a harp. Most of the time her voice is immersed in reverb, so much so I swear I could still hear it after I pressed the “stop” button. There are a few diamonds: “Am I Blue?” “Hello in There” and “Boogie Woogie” are nice. There isn’t enough shelf space inside my house for my entire collection, the “less appealing” of which is in the garage which is not climate controlled. This will fit right in there.

I understand. That's the way I feel about a few of the rock Quadios released: Hot Tuna, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, J. Geil's Band and Jefferson Starship. The word "hate" applies to these releases for me. The difference is that I would never even consider buying them in the first place, let alone go into depth, song by song, on how much I hate the album on this forum.

 

[par4ken]

I understand. That's the way I feel about a few of the rock Quadios released: Hot Tuna, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, J. Geil's Band and Jefferson Starship. The word "hate" applies to these releases for me. The difference is that I would never even consider buying them in the first place, let alone go into depth, song by song, on how much I hate the album on this forum.

Sorry that you feel that way. I found bktouchstone's review to be very excellent. I neglected to mention myself that the mix is rather "wet" with a lot of reverb added to the vocals, one point that he alone has made. Comments are always much more informative than a rather arbitrary vote. The fact that he is not casting a vote which would likely be a lowish number due to not liking the content will not adversely effect the vote totals. I for one welcome such comments!

 

[Victor Bisio]

Sorry that you feel that way. I found bktouchstone's review to be very excellent. I neglected to mention myself that the mix is rather "wet" with a lot of reverb added to the vocals, one point that he alone has made. Comments are always much more informative than a rather arbitrary vote. The fact that he is not casting a vote which would likely be a lowish number due to not liking the content will not adversely effect the vote totals. I for one welcome such comments!

I still found his dislike for the material to be unwarranted. She's been around for more than 50 years. There was more talk about that instead of the disc's technical aspects. YMMV.

 

[bktouchstone]

I understand. That's the way I feel about a few of the rock Quadios released: Hot Tuna, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, J. Geil's Band and Jefferson Starship. The word "hate" applies to these releases for me. The difference is that I would never even consider buying them in the first place, let alone go into depth, song by song, on how much I hate the album on this forum.

Never my intent to offend, and in fact “hate” is a probably too strong a word. If Bette Midler’s car broke down in front of my house I would certainly call her a cab. A lot of folks who have gotten into surround music find that there is a lack of titles which has pushed us into exploring other genres and try new things. Despite making some interesting and exciting musical discoveries, sometimes there is one that just doesn’t resonate, and this is one for me. But to the extent I have some thoughts about why something works or does not, I may share with this community. Others may find it useful, or not. I certainly don’t begrudge anyone liking this album.

 

[JDeanB]

I don't think this one sold as well as "Divine Miss M" did, which is possibly why it never got the quad treatment. That, plus her previous album had more possibilities for some quad fun than this one did.

IIRC, the second album received a scathing review from Jon Landau in Rolling Stone, which was, reportedly, devastating to Ms. Midler. Nonetheless, many of the songs could make a fun listen in surround: "Optimistic Voices"/"Lullaby of Broadway"/"In The Mood" plus the girl group medley.