Mambo Italiano

Dean Martin



Rosemary Clooney



Bette Midler





(A girl went back to Napoli because she missed the scenery)
(The native dances and the charming songs)
(But wait a minute something's wrong)
('cause now it's)
Hey mambo, mambo Italiano hey hey mambo mambo Italiano
Go go go you mixed up Siciliano
All you Calabrese do the mambo like-a crazy with the
Hey mambo don't wanna tarantella
Hey mambo no more mozzarella
Hey mambo mambo Italiano try an enchilada with a fish baccala
Hey goomba I love how you dance the rumba
But take some advice paisano learn-a how to mambo
If you're gonna be a square you ain't-a gonna go anywhere
Hey mambo mambo Italiano hey hey mambo mambo Italiano
Go go Joe shake like a tiavanna
E lo che se dice you get happy in the pizza when you
Mambo Italiano

Hey chadrool you don't-a have to go to school
Just make it with a big bambino
It's like vino
Kid you good-a looking but you don't-a know what's cooking 'til you
Hey mambo mambo Italiano
Hey hey mambo mambo Italiano
Ho ho ho you mixed up Siciliano
E lo che se dice you get happy in the pizza when you
Mambo Italiano


Bette Midler (born December 1, 1945) is an American singer, actress and comedian, also known (by her informal stage name) as The Divine Miss M. During her more than forty year career, she has been nominated for two Academy Awards; and won four Grammy Awards, four Golden Globes, three Emmy Awards, and a special Tony Award.

Midler was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. She is the daughter of seamstress/housewife Ruth (née Schindel) and house painter Fred Midler, who worked at a Navy base in Hawaii.[1][2] Her parents were from Paterson, New Jersey and moved to Honolulu before Midler was born. She was named after the actress Bette Davis, though Davis pronounced her first name in two syllables, and Midler uses one, /ˈbɛt/. Midler's family was one of the few Jewish families in a mostly Asian neighborhood[3]. She was raised in nearby Aiea and attended Radford High School [4] in Honolulu. She was voted in Hoss Election 1961 "Most Talkative" and in her Senior Year (Class of 1963) "Most Dramatic".[5] She majored in drama at the University of Hawaii (though she only attended for three semesters) [6] and earned money in the film Hawaii (released in 1966) as an extra, playing a seasick passenger named Mrs David Buff in the film.
[edit] Career
[edit] The theater actress

In the summer of 1965, Midler relocated to New York City, using the money from having worked as an extra in the film Hawaii. She landed her first professional onstage role in Tom Eyen's Off-Off-Broadway plays in 1965, Miss Nefertiti Regrets and Cinderella Revisited, a children's play by day and an adult show by night.[7] From 1966 to 1969, she played the role of Tzeitel in Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway; tragically, during this period, her sister Judith, visiting New York to see her perform, was killed by a taxi cab[citation needed].

In the summer of 1970, Midler began singing in the Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse in the city, where she became close to her piano accompanist, Barry Manilow. He later produced her first album, 1972's The Divine Miss M. It was during her time at the Continental Baths that she built up a core following. In the late 1990s, during the release of her album Bathhouse Betty, Midler commented on her time performing there:

"Despite the way things turned out [with the AIDS crisis], I'm still proud of those days. I feel like I was at the forefront of the gay liberation movement, and I hope I did my part to help it move forward. So, I kind of wear the label of 'Bathhouse Betty' with pride." [8]

In 1971, Midler starred in the first professional production of The Who's rock opera Tommy with director Richard Pearlman and the Seattle Opera.[9] It was during the run of Tommy that Midler was asked to appear on the The Tonight Show. She proved to be so popular that her career immediately skyrocketed.
[edit] 1970-1980 Success

Midler released her debut album The Divine Miss M on Atlantic Records in December 1972. It streaked into Billboard's Top 10 and became a million-selling Platinum-certified album, making her a star in the process and earning Midler the 1973 Grammy Award for Best New Artist. It featured three hit singles with "Do You Want To Dance?", "Friends", and "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" which became Bette's first #1 Adult Contemporary hit. Bette's self titled follow-up album was released at the end of 1973. It also zoomed into Billboard's Top 10 and eventually sold close to a million copies in the United States alone. Midler continued the success of her first album with the self-titled Bette Midler (1973), Songs For The New Depression (1976) and Broken Blossom all of which established her as one of the most diversified and versatile talents in the industry at that time.
Bette Midler at the premiere of The Rose.

In 1975, she received a Special Tony Award for her contribution to Broadway with Clams on the Half Shell Revue playing at the Minskoff Theater. From 1975–1978, she also provided the voice of Woody the Spoon on the PBS educational series Vegetable Soup.

In 1977, Midler's first television special, Ol' Red Hair is Back, premiered, featuring guest stars Dustin Hoffman and Emmett Kelly. It went on to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Special - Comedy-Variety or Music.

In 1979, Midler made her first motion picture, starring in the 1960s-era rock and roll tragedy The Rose, as a drug-addicted rock star modeled after Janis Joplin. That year she also released her fifth studio album; Thighs and Whispers. Midler's first foray into disco did not however match her previous successes and went on to be her all-time lowest charting album, peaking at #65 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart. Soon afterwards she left to go on a world concert tour, with one of the shows (in Pasadena) being filmed and released as the concert film Divine Madness. Also in 1980, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Rose, for which she won the Golden Globe for Best Actress (Comedy or Musical). The film's acclaimed soundtrack album sold over two million copies in the United States alone, earning a Double Platinum certification. The single version of the song held the #1 position on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart for five consecutive weeks and reached #3 on Billboard's Hot 100. It earned Midler her first Gold single, and won the Grammy award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female.