Songs for the New Depression is the third studio album by American female vocalist

Singing

Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...

 Bette Midler

Bette Midler

Bette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...

, released in early 1976 on the Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...

 label.

The album which saw Midler making her debut as a composer ("Mr. Rockefeller" and the French language "Samedi et Vendredi"), as well as co-producer and sound engineer features contributions from musicians as diverse as soul singer Luther Vandross

Luther Vandross

Luther Ronzoni Vandross was an American singer-songwriter and record producer. During his career, Vandross sold over twenty-five million albums and won eight Grammy Awards including Best Male R&B Vocal Performance four times...

, Todd Rundgren

Todd Rundgren

Todd Harry Rundgren is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972, Todd Rundgren's career has produced a diverse range of recordings...

 and Brazilian jazz accordionist Sivuca

Sivuca

Severino Dias de Oliveirawas a Brazilian accordionist and guitarist.In addition to in his home state of Paraíba, in Recife, and in Rio de Janeiro,...

. Songs for the New Depression includes Midler's version of Tom Waits

Tom Waits

Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...

' "Shiver Me Timbers", a duet with Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

, "Buckets of Rain", and opens with her discofied take on Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...

's standard "Strangers in the Night" which became a #7 hit on the US dance charts. Two of the tracks, "Old Cape Cod" and "Marahuana", were originally recorded during the sessions for 1972 debut album The Divine Miss M (album)

The Divine Miss M (album)

The Divine Miss M is the debut album by American female vocalist Bette Midler, released in 1972 on the Atlantic Records label. The title of the album refers to Midler's famous stage persona...

but remixed three years later by producers Lew Hahn and Arif Mardin for Songs for the New Depression. The album peaked at #27 on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

album chart. "Mr. Rockefeller" was sampled by rapper Kanye West

Kanye West

Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...

 on the song, "Last Call", from his debut album, The College Dropout

The College Dropout

The College Dropout is the debut album by American hip hop artist Kanye West, released February 10, 2004, on Roc-A-Fella Records. It was recorded over a period of four years, beginning in 1999. Prior to the album's release, West had worked on rapper Jay-Z's The Blueprint , which showcased his...

.

The album was digitally remastered and reissued on CD by Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...

/Warner Music in 1995 but with no bonus tracks.

Side A

1. "Strangers in the Night
   Strangers in the Night
   "Strangers in the Night" is a popular song composed by Bert Kaempfert with English lyrics by Charles Singleton and Eddie Snyder. It was originally created under the title Beddy Bye as part of the instrumental score for the movie A Man Could Get Killed...
   
   " (Bert Kaempfert
   Bert Kaempfert
   Bert Kaempfert was a German orchestra leader and songwriter. He made easy listening and jazz-oriented records, and wrote the music for a number of well-known songs, such as "Strangers in the Night" and "Spanish Eyes".-Biography:He was born in Hamburg, Germany - where he received his lifelong...
   
   , Charles Singleton, Eddie Snyder
   Eddie Snyder
   Edward Abraham Snyder was an American composer and songwriter. Snyder is credited with co-writing the English language lyrics and music for Frank Sinatra's 1966 hit, "Strangers in the Night"....
   
   ) - 3:22
2. "I Don't Want the Night to End" (Phoebe Snow) - 3:53
3. "Mr. Rockefeller" (Jerry Blatt, Bette Midler) - 4:05
4. "Old Cape Cod
   Old Cape Cod
   "Old Cape Cod" is a song, written by Claire Rothrock, Milton Yakus, and Allan Jeffrey, and published in 1957.The recording by Patti Page was released by Mercury Records as catalog number 71101; flip side "Wondering." It first reached the Billboard magazine charts on June 3, 1957...
   
   " (Claire Rothrock, Allan Jeffrey, Milton Yakus
   Milton Yakus
   Milton Yakus was a popular songwriter.Among the songs he wrote or co-wrote:*"Annie Oakley"*"At the River"*"Go on with the Wedding"*"I Love Love Love Love Love"*"If You Kiss Me"*"Old Cape Cod"*"Take Me Home"*"Tell Me"...
   
   ) - 2:50
5. "Buckets of Rain
   Buckets of Rain
   "Buckets of Rain" is a song written by Bob Dylan, released in 1975 on his critically acclaimed album Blood on the Tracks.In the officially released studio recording, "Buckets of Rain" is played in the key of E major. Instrumentally there are only two: acoustic guitar and bass guitar...
   
   " (Bob Dylan
   Bob Dylan
   Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
   
   ) - 4:00
6. "Love Says It's Waiting" (Nick Holmes) - 1:41
   • From The Promise Suite

Side B

1. "Shiver Me Timbers"/"Samedi et Vendredi" (Tom Waits
   Tom Waits
   Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
   
   ) / (Bette Midler, Moogy Klingman
   Moogy Klingman
   Mark "Moogy" Klingman was an American musician and songwriter. He was a founding member of Todd Rundgren's musical team Utopia, and later became a solo recording artist, bandleader and songwriter...
   
   ) - 6:25
2. "No Jestering" (Carlton Malcolm) - 3:59
3. "Tragedy" (Gerald Nelson, Fred Burch) - 3:06
4. "Marahuana
   Murder at the Vanities
   Murder at the Vanities is a musical film based on the 1933 Broadway musical with music by Victor Young, made in the pre-Code era, and released by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Mitchell Leisen, stars Carl Brisson, Jack Oakie, Kitty Carlisle, Gertrude Michael, Toby Wing, and Jessie Ralph...
   
   " (Arthur Jonston, Sam Coslow) - 2:30
5. "Let Me Just Follow Behind" (Moogy Klingman) - 3:36

Personnel

• Bette Midler
  Bette Midler
  Bette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...
  
   - lead vocals all tracks, backing vocals
  Backing vocalist
  A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
  
   tracks B1, B2
• Glaswegians Orchestra - arranged & conducted by Arif Mardin
  Arif Mardin
  Arif Mardin was a Turkish-American music producer, who worked with hundreds of artists across many different styles of music, including jazz, rock, soul, disco, and country...
  
   track A1
• Dianne Sumler - backing vocals track A1
• Luther Vandross
  Luther Vandross
  Luther Ronzoni Vandross was an American singer-songwriter and record producer. During his career, Vandross sold over twenty-five million albums and won eight Grammy Awards including Best Male R&B Vocal Performance four times...
  
   - arranger & backing vocals track A1
• Norman Pride - conga
  Conga
  The conga, or more properly the tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed Cuban drum with African antecedents. It is thought to be derived from the Makuta drums or similar drums associated with Afro-Cubans of Central African descent. A person who plays conga is called a conguero...
  
   track A2
• John Siegler - bass guitar
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
   tracks A2, A3, A5, B2, B5
• John Wilcox - drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
   tracks A2, A3, A5, B2, B5
• Todd Rundgren
  Todd Rundgren
  Todd Harry Rundgren is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972, Todd Rundgren's career has produced a diverse range of recordings...
  
   - guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
   tracks A2, B2, background vocals track B5
• Moogy Klingman
  Moogy Klingman
  Mark "Moogy" Klingman was an American musician and songwriter. He was a founding member of Todd Rundgren's musical team Utopia, and later became a solo recording artist, bandleader and songwriter...
  
   - electric piano
  Electric piano
  An electric piano is an electric musical instrument.Electric pianos produce sounds mechanically and the sounds are turned into electrical signals by pickups. Unlike a synthesizer, the electric piano is not an electronic instrument, but electro-mechanical. The earliest electric pianos were invented...
  
  , musical arranger, musical conductor, string
  String instrument
  A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
  
   arrangement track A2, piano
  Piano
  The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
  
  , RMI Computer keyboard, Mini Korg
  Korg
  is a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures electronic musical instruments, audio processors and guitar pedals, recording equipment, and electronic tuners...
  
   synthesizer
  Synthesizer
  A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
  
  , arranger & conductor track A3, piano, harmonica
  Harmonica
  The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
  
   & arranger track A5
• Ralph Schuckett - acoustic piano track A2, clavinet
  Clavinet
  A Clavinet is an electrically amplified keyboard instrument manufactured by the Hohner company. It is essentially an electronically amplified clavichord, analogous to an electric guitar. Its distinctive bright staccato sound has appeared particularly in funk, disco, rock, and reggae songs.Various...
  
   track A3, arranging assistance, arranger & conductor track B1, piano, arranger & conductor track B2, piano track B3, Sound City piano, harmonium, string ensemble, arranger & conductor track B5
• David Lasley
  David Lasley
  David Lasley is an American singer-songwriter, best known for his contributions as a background singer for such artists as Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor and Luther Vandross....
  
   - background vocals track A2
• Ralph Schuckett - string arrangement track A2, organ
  Organ (music)
  The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
  
   track A5
• David Spinozza
  David Spinozza
  David Spinozza is an American musician , who worked with former Beatles Paul McCartney and John Lennon during the 1970s, and had a long collaboration with singer-songwriter James Taylor, producing Taylor's album Walking Man....
  
   - guitar tracks A3, B5
• Erin Dickens - background vocals, track A3
• Annie Sutton - background vocals, track A3
• Randy Brecker
  Randy Brecker
  Randal "Randy" Brecker is an American trumpeter and flugelhornist. He is a highly sought after performer in the genres of jazz, rock, and R&B, and has performed or recorded with Stanley Turrentine, Billy Cobham, Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Sandip Burman, Charles Mingus, Blood, Sweat & Tears,...
  
   - horn
  Horn (instrument)
  The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
  
  s, track A3, trumpet solo track B5
• Michael Brecker
  Michael Brecker
  Michael Leonard Brecker was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Acknowledged as "a quiet, gentle musician widely regarded as the most influential tenor saxophonist since John Coltrane," he has been awarded 15 Grammy Awards as both performer and composer and was inducted into Down Beat Jazz...
  
   - horns, track A3
• Barry Rogers - horns, track A3
• Dick Hyman
  Dick Hyman
  Richard “Dick” Hyman is an American jazz pianist/keyboardist and composer, best-known for his versatility with jazz piano styles. Over a 50 year career, he has functioned as pianist, organist, arranger, music director, and, increasingly, as composer...
  
   - piano, tracks A4, B4
• Milt Hinton - acoustic bass
  Double bass
  The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
  
   track A4, bass track B4
• Ted Sommer - drums, tracks A4, B4, percussion track B4
• Arif Mardin
  Arif Mardin
  Arif Mardin was a Turkish-American music producer, who worked with hundreds of artists across many different styles of music, including jazz, rock, soul, disco, and country...
  
   - arranger & conductor, track A4, backing vocals, arranger & conductor track B4
• Marty Nelson - vocal arranger, track A4
• Bob Dylan
  Bob Dylan
  Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
  
   - vocal, track A5
• Dave Webster - slide guitar
  Slide guitar
  Slide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide refers to the motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides: the necks of glass bottles...
  
  , track A5
• Eric Weissberg
  Eric Weissberg
  Eric Weissberg is an American banjo player, best known for the theme from the movie Deliverance.-Biography:Eric Weissberg went to the University of Wisconsin–Madison, then the Juilliard School of Music. He joined an early version of the Greenbriar Boys , but left before they made any recordings....
  
   - banjo
  Banjo
  In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
  
   & mandolin
  Mandolin
  A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
  
   track B1
• Barbara Burton - percussion
  Percussion instrument
  A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
  
   track B1
• Don Brooks - harmonicas track B1

• Dominic Cortese - accordion
  Accordion
  The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
  
   track B1
• Boris Matusevitch - concertina
  Concertina
  A concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It has a bellows and buttons typically on both ends of it. When pressed, the buttons travel in the same direction as the bellows, unlike accordion buttons which travel perpendicularly to it...
  
   track B1
• Steve Gadd
  Steve Gadd
  Steve Gadd is an American session and studio drummer, notable for his work with popular musicians from a wide range of genres.-Biography:...
  
   - drums track B1
• John Miller - acoustic bass track B1
• Kenny Kosek
  Kenny Kosek
  Kenny Kosek, born in 1949 in The Bronx, New York, is an American fiddler who plays bluegrass, country, klezmer, folk music and roots music. In addition to his solo career, he has performed with many other well-known performers and contributed to film and television soundtrack music. He is also a...
  
   - fiddle track B1
• John Lissauer - arranger & conductor track B1, saxes
  Saxophone
  The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
  
  , chimes, arranger & conductor track B3
• Mark Rosengarden - drums & percussion track B1
• Jack Malken - additional percussion track B1
• John Miller - acoustic bass track B1
• Sivuca
  Sivuca
  Severino Dias de Oliveirawas a Brazilian accordionist and guitarist.In addition to in his home state of Paraíba, in Recife, and in Rio de Janeiro,...
  
   - accordion track B1
• Jerry Friedman - guitar track B2
• Angel Allende - percussion track B2
• Ralph Schuckett - organ track B2, electric piano track B5
• David Nadien - strings track B3
• Barry Finclair - strings track B3
• Raul Poliakin - strings track B3
• Tony Posk - strings track B3
• Gene Orloff - strings track B3
• Harry Lookofsky - strings track B3
• Charles McCracken - strings track B3
• Jessy Levy - strings track B3
• Donny Beard - background vocals track B3
• Charlotte Crossley - background vocals tracks A1 & B3
• Leata Galloway - background vocals track B3
• Ben Harney - background vocals track B3
• Rhetta Hughes - background vocals track B3
• Thomas Moore - background vocals track B3
• Ula Hedwig - background vocals track A1 & B3
• Sharon Redd
  Sharon Redd
  Sharon Redd was an American singer from New York. She was the half sister of R&B singer Pennye Ford.-Biography and career:...
  
   - background vocals track A1 & B3
• Ramona Stubblefield - background vocals track B3
• Clifford Townsend - background vocals track B3
• Revelation - background vocals track B3
• Rosie - background vocals track B3
• Erin Dickens - background vocals track B3
• Mel Davis - trumpet
  Trumpet
  The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
  
   track B4
• William Siapin - flute
  Flute
  The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
  
   track B4
• Harry Lookofsky - violin
  Violin
  The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
  
   track B4
• Matthew Raimondi - violin track B4
• Emanuel Green - violin track B4
• Gotham - backing vocals track B4
• Rick Derringer
  Rick Derringer
  Rick Derringer is an American guitarist, vocalist, and entertainer.-1960s:When he was seventeen years old, his band The McCoys recorded "Hang on Sloopy" in the summer of 1965, which became the number one song in America before "Yesterday" by The Beatles knocked it out of the top spot. The song was...
  
   - pedal steel guitar track B5

Production

• Moogy Klingman - record producer
  Record producer
  A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
  
   for Moogtown Productions
• Jack Malken - production assistant
• Recorded and mixed at Secret Sound Studio, New York, N.Y.
• Jack Malken - recording and re-mix engineer
• Bette Midler - assistant engineer
• Deborah Turbville - photography
• Michaele Vollbracht - shopping bag
• Kenn Duncan - poster photos
• Richard Amsel - inner sleeve illustration
• Aaron Russo - management

• Track A1 recorded at Electric Lady & Media Sound Studios, New York, N.Y.
• Lew Hahn - recording engineer & re-mix engineer track A1
• Gerry Block - assistant engineer track A1
• Dave Wittman - assistant engineer track A1
• Arif Mardin - record producer
  Record producer
  A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
  
   track A1
• Ahmet Ertegün
  Ahmet Ertegun
  Ahmet Ertegün was a Turkish American musician and businessman, best known as the founder and president of Atlantic Records. He also wrote classic blues and pop songs and served as Chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and museum...
  
  - production assistance track A1
• Tracks A4 & B4 recorded at Atlantic Recording Studios, New York by Lew Hahn. Re-mixed by Lew Hahn & Arif Mardin.
• Joel Dorn - producer tracks A4, B4
• Bette Midler - producer tracks A4, B4
• Jack Malken - engineer track A5
• Jan Rathbun - engineer track A5