A gift from a friend. It's really growing on me.
My first exposure to Bette was (as to be expected) shortly after I came out. I was hanging around with the guy who had been my "first time" (another story for another time) a few weeks afterward in his dorm room one afternoon, and he pulled out Live at Last.
I'd never even heard of Bette Midler (remember, this was 1976 and she wasn't the household name she is now), and admittedly I wasn't wowed by what I'd heard (other than the Sophie Tucker jokes), but he let me borrow the album—along with his copy of Bette Midler. I gave them both an extended listen but still wasn't impressed. It wasn't until many years later that I finally got Bette.
In the intervening years, I've followed Miss M through her highs and lows, her various albums, movies, incarnations and reinventions and have loved every minute. With It's the Girls, it seems she's gotten back to her roots and it sounds good.