No Frills (Bette Midler album)


No Frills is the sixth studio album by American singer Bette Midler, released on Atlantic Records in 1983. No Frills was Midler's first studio album in four years, following the movies The Rose, Divine Madness! and Jinxed!. The rock and new wave influenced album was produced by Chuck Plotkin, best known for his work with Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, and included three single releases; the ballad "All I Need to Know", a cover of Marshall Crenshaw's "My Favourite Waste of Time" and Midler's take on the Rolling Stones song "Beast of Burden".

Release

While No Frills became Midler's second lowest-charting album in the US, peaking at #60 on Billboard, it became her best-selling studio album to date in both Continental Europe and Scandinavia; in West Germany it reached #15, in the Netherlands #10, in Norway #2 and in Sweden No Frills hit #1, outselling the Rose soundtrack. "Beast of Burden" was a Top 10 single in most parts of Europe. The promo video for the song, made during the early MTV era, featured Mick Jagger in a cameo role playing Midler's boyfriend. The soundtrack to the video including the spoken dialogue was released on the B-side of the 12" single in Europe. In September 1984 the video for "Beast Of Burden" was nominated for three MTV Video Music Awards for Best Female Video, Best Choreography, and Best Stage Performance Video.
When Midler's greatest hits compilation Experience the Divine was released in 1993 only one song from No Frills was included; "Only In Miami" - an album track which never was a single either in the US or in Europe. A second edition of the compilation with a revised track list, released in 1996, added both "Beast of Burden" and "My Favourite Waste of Time".
The album was released on CD for the first time in 1990. A remastered version of the album was released by Atlantic Records/Warner Music in 1995.

Track listing

Side A
  1. "Is It Love" - 4:43
  2. "Favorite Waste of Time" - 2:43
  3. "All I Need to Know" - 4:08
  4. "Only in Miami" - 4:35
  5. "Heart Over Head" - 2:52
Side B
  1. "Let Me Drive" - 4:02
  2. "My Eye on You" - 4:03
  3. "Beast of Burden" - 3:48
  4. "Soda and a Souvenir" - 3:23
  5. "Come Back Jimmy Dean" - 3:51

    Personnel