Now Available: Bette Midler, A Gift of Love

“The Divine Miss M,” as Bette Midler has been called ever since audiences realized just how divine she truly is, hit the big 7-0 yesterday, which seems like as good a time as any to deliver a new best-of collection unto the world. That's right: it's Bette's birthday, but you're the one who's getting a gift.

A Gift of Love may be far from Ms. Midler's first greatest-hits set, but this one has a particular theme, culling 18 of her best love songs. Given how much material she's released over the years, you're right to presume that it was a bit of a challenge to work out what would make the cut for this compilation, which is why every era of her career isn't covered. To be fair, though, it does go all the way back to 1976 with “Let Me Just Follow Behind,” and it goes all the way up to material recorded by Midler during the sessions for her 2014 album, It's the Girls. In fact, the two inclusions from the latter album are the songs that were exclusive to the Target edition of the album, so it's probably that many fans won't even have heard them before.

Here's the full track listing of A Gift of Love, and we'll just leave you with this remark: any album that kicks off with a Marshall Crenshaw cover is all right in our book.

1. "Favorite Waste Of Time"
2. "In This Life"
3. "The Gift Of Love"
4. "Bed Of Roses"
5. "From A Distance"
6. "Wind Beneath My Wings"
7. "Come Rain Or Come Shine"
8. "The Rose"
9. "As Dreams Go By"
10. "It's Too Late"
11. "All I Need To Know"
12. "Every Road Leads Back To You"
13. "Shining Star"
14. "To Deserve You"
15. "Night And Day"
16. "(Talk To Me Of) Mendocino"
17. "The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game"
18. "Let Me Just Follow Behind"