''Mud Will Be Flung Tonight!'' is the third live and first

comedy album Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term origin ...

by American singer and actress

Bette Midler Bette Midler (;'' Inside the Actors Studio'', 2004 born December 1, 1945) is an American singer, actress, comedian and author. Throughout her career, which spans over five decades, Midler has received numerous accolades, including four Golden ...

, released on December 1985, by

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most im ...

Overview

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 Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

(''"Like a virgin.....? Touched for the very first time....? For the very first time today!"'')

Meryl Streep Mary Louise Meryl Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American actress. Often described as "the best actress of her generation", Streep is particularly known for her versatility and accent adaptability. She has received numerous accolades throu ...

Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originato ...

and

Olivia Newton-John Dame Olivia Newton-John (26 September 1948 – 8 August 2022) was a British-Australian singer, actress and activist. She was a four-time Grammy Awards, Grammy Award winner whose music career included 15 top-ten singles, including 5 number-one s ...

(''"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 A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shells ...

''. 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. 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

Charlotte Dillon of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...

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".

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

called the album quite funny, not devoid of a certain style of the performer. Keith Tuber from ''

Orange Coast The Orange Coast is the string of cities and neighborhoods fronting the Pacific Coast in Orange County, California. From northwest to southeast, these cities are Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Dana Point and San Cl ...

'' 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. For the album, Bette Midler was awarded the

American Comedy Awards The American Comedy Awards were a group of awards presented annually in the United States recognizing performances and performers in the field of comedy, with an emphasis on television comedy and comedy films. They began in 1987, billed as the ...

in the category "Funniest Record of the Year".

Track listing

Personnel

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

, record producer, writer * Marc Shaiman –

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

, 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 Bruce Gerald Vilanch (born November 23, 1948) is an American comedy writer, songwriter and actor. He is a two-time Emmy Award-winner. Vilanch is best known to the public for his four-year stint on ''Hollywood Squares'', as a celebrity participan ...

* 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 Gerson Merton Friedman (June 6, 1932 – November 12, 2022), known professionally as Budd Friedman, was an American actor and comedian, as well as the founder and original proprietor and MC of the Improvisation Comedy Club, which opened in 19 ...

's Improvisation, Los Angeles, California, April 30 - May 1, 1985 * Mixed and edited by John Alberts at Regent Sound Studio

Charts

References

External links

* {{Authority control Bette Midler live albums 1985 live albums Atlantic Records live albums Live comedy albums 1980s comedy albums Stand-up comedy albums