1979 · Behind the Songs
A soul monument, dressed for the disco floor.
Percy Sledge’s 1966 original is one of soul music’s monuments, and covering it takes either courage or foolishness; Bette Midler, recording her disco-era album Thighs and Whispers in 1979, had the first. She wrapped the song in the era’s glossy production — strings, a steady four-on-the-floor pulse — and sang it straight, letting the melody’s ache do the work instead of fighting the arrangement.
It was a left-field choice that made perfect sense: Midler had always been a torch singer at heart, and the disco setting gave the old heartbreak a new dance floor. The record showed how completely she had absorbed the late-1970s moment without abandoning her interpretive instincts. Some songs belong to their first singer forever; this one proved Midler could borrow it for four minutes and make you believe every word.