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Mud Will Be Flung Tonight

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Mud Will Be Flung Tonight!
Live album by
Bette Midler
ReleasedDecember 1985 (1985-12)
RecordedApril 30, 1985 – May 1, 1985[1]
VenueThe Improvisation, Hollywood[2]
Genre
Length39:56
LabelAtlantic
Producer
Bette Midler chronology
No Frills
(1983) 		Mud Will Be Flung Tonight!
(1985) 		Just Hits
(1987)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4]
Comedy on Record: The Complete Critical Discography[5]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[6]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[7]

Mud Will Be Flung Tonight! is the third live and first comedy album[8] by American singer and actress Bette Midler, released in December 1985, by Atlantic Records.[3]

Overview

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It is a live recording of one of Midler's stand-up comedy shows performed in 1985. Although primarily a spoken word album, Midler is accompanied onstage by her long-time musical collaborator Marc Shaiman on piano. The album captures Midler "throwing mud into the faces of some of your favorites", among them Madonna ("Like a virgin.....? Touched for the very first time....? For the very first time today!") Meryl Streep, Bruce Springsteen and Olivia Newton-John ("Let's get physical... let me hear your body talk..... My body said "Fuck you!!!") and it also includes the original version of the song "Otto Titsling", three years later re-recorded in the studio and prominently featured in the movie Beaches.

Despite the positive critical reception, the album was not a sales success, reaching only number 183 on the US charts, which was the worst result for Midler in her career.[9] The album was released on CD for the first time in 1989. Unlike the rest of Midler's discography up to this point, this album was never reissued on CD and is currently out of print.

Critical reception

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Charlotte Dillon of AllMusic retrospectively gave the album four stars out of five, stating that the album is worth buying because there is enough material on the album to laugh; she especially noted the tracks "The Unfettered Boob", "Taking Aim", "Fit or Fat" and "incredibly funny number" called "Marriage, Movies, Madonna and Mick".[4] Robert Christgau called the album quite funny, not devoid of a certain style of the performer.[10]

Keith Tuber from Orange Coast magazine, on the contrary, gave a negative assessment of the album, stating that Midler's main problem is not in the presentation of the material, but in the humor itself; according to the reviewer, she is used to shocking the public, but in the modern world, few people are shocked by jokes below the belt. In the end, he added that it is impossible to listen to the album without a liter of drunk wine, but who exactly will fly dirt, so it's in those who will buy this album.[11]

For the album, Bette Midler was awarded the American Comedy Awards in the category "Funniest Record of the Year".[12]

Track listing

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Side A
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Taking Aim"Bette Midler5:09
2."Fit Or Fat 'Fat As I Am'"
3:10
3."Marriage, Movies, Madonna and Mick"Midler6:39
4."Vickie Eydie / I'm Singing Broadway"
  • Midler
  • Blatt
4:44
Side B
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Coping"Midler1:40
2."The Unfettered Boob"Midler2:58
3."Otto Titsling"
  • Midler
  • Blatt
  • Charlene Seeger
4:20
4."Why Bother?"Midler6:44
5."Soph"Midler4:32
Total length:39:56

Personnel

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  • Bette Midler – vocals, record producer, writer
  • Marc Shaiman – piano, musical arranger
  • Bob Kaminsky – record producer
  • Jerry Blatt – record producer
  • Additional material by: Jerry Blatt, Frank Mula, Lenny Ripps, Marc Shaiman, Charlene Seeger, Bruce Vilanch
  • Bonnie Bruckheimer-Martell – associate producer
  • Mark Partis – second engineer
  • Ralph Kelsey – assistant engineer
  • Recorded by Guy Charboneau & Cliff Bonnell, Le Mobile
  • Recorded at Budd Friedman's Improvisation, Los Angeles, California, April 30 - May 1, 1985
  • Mixed and edited by John Alberts at Regent Sound Studio

Charts

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Chart performance for Mud Will Be Flung Tonight
Chart (1985) Peak
position
US Billboard 200[9] 183

References

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  1. ^ Bego, Mark; Coolidge, Rita (2002). "Ready to Begin Again". Bette Midler: Still Divine (Illustrated ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 179–180. ISBN 9780815412328.
  2. ^ Mud Will Be Flung Tonight at Discogs. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
  3. ^ a b "Review: Mud Will Be Flung Tonight!" (PDF). Cashbox. Vol. 49, no. 26. December 12, 1985. p. 8. ISSN 0008-7289. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 28, 2021.
  4. ^ a b Dillon, Charlotte. Mud Will Be Flung Tonight! Review at AllMusic. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
  5. ^ Smith, Ronald L. (1988). Comedy on Record: The Complete Critical Discography. Garland Reference Library of the Humanities. Garland Pub. p. 724. ISBN 9780824084615.
  6. ^ Larkin, Colin (1998). "Bette Midler". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Vol. 5 (3rd ed.). New York: Muze UK Ltd. pp. 3655–3656. ISBN 1-56159-237-4.
  7. ^ Coleman, Marc; Brackett, Nathan (2004). "Bette Midler". In Brackett, Nathan; Christian, Hoard (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 540. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  8. ^ Grein, Paul (November 9, 1985). "Atlantic's Pre-Yule LP's". Billboard. Vol. 97, no. 45. p. 102. ISSN 0006-2510.
  9. ^ a b "Bette Midler Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
  10. ^ Christgau, Robert (1998). "Bette Midler Sings... Everything". Grown Up All Wrong: 75 Great Rock and Pop Artists from Vaudeville to Techno. Harvard University Press. p. 368. ISBN 9780674443181.
  11. ^ Tuber, Keith (April 1986). "Repacking Rock 'N' Roll". Orange Coast. Vol. 12, no. 4. pp. 138, 140. ISSN 0279-0483.
  12. ^ Bette Midler – The 1st annual Comedy Awards 1987 on YouTube
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