November 7th
album anniversaries

Many songs on The Divine Miss M were already part of Bette Midler’s shows at the Continental Baths, the bathhouse in New York’s Ansonia Hotel where she began performing in 1970. Barry Manilow, her piano accompanist, co-produced the album with Ahmet Ertegün, Joel Dorn and Geoffrey Haslam.

The sequence moves from “Do You Want to Dance?” and “Chapel of Love” to “Hello in There” and “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”, and several of these became standards in her repertoire. The album reached number nine on the Billboard 200, and in 1973 it won Midler the Grammy for Best New Artist.

Two eras meet on Eagles Live: five tracks come from October 1976 shows at the Forum in Inglewood, and ten from July 1980 dates at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium and Long Beach Arena. By then the band was coming apart, and Glenn Frey refused to join the others for the overdub sessions.

Bill Szymczyk worked with tapes shipped between Los Angeles and Miami and jokingly credited the harmony fixes to Federal Express. Steve Young’s “Seven Bridges Road” became a top 40 single, and the double album reached number six on the Billboard 200.

Cinema was the working name when Chris Squire, Alan White, Tony Kaye and the South African guitarist Trevor Rabin began the songs that became 90125. Most of the material grew from Rabin’s demos, former singer Trevor Horn took the producer’s chair, and Jon Anderson’s return brought the group back to the Yes name.

“Owner of a Lonely Heart” spent two weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, the band’s only US chart-topper. The instrumental “Cinema” won a Grammy, and the album’s title came from its Atco catalogue number.

Election Day fixed the American date for Green, so Warner Bros. issued R.E.M.’s first album for the label in the UK on 7 November 1988 and in the US a day later. Scott Litt co-produced again, with basic tracks cut at Ardent Studios in Memphis and later sessions at Bearsville Studios in New York State.

Mandolin, accordion, cello and lap steel widen the band’s sound, and Peter Buck plays mandolin on three tracks. “Orange Crush”, “Stand”, “Pop Song 89” and “Get Up” were the singles, and the album reached number 12 on the Billboard 200.

Several months before this second album came out, Sunny Day Real Estate had already split. Jeremy Enigk later said the band broke up during the recording, which left him and Dan Hoerner with many lyrics unfinished, and the group co-produced the record with Brad Wood.

When Sub Pop asked for artwork, the band had nothing to offer, so William Goldsmith suggested they “make it pink”. The plain pink sleeve, without liner notes, gave it the nickname the Pink Album, though the label catalogued it as LP2. “Friday” and “8” were re-recorded after earlier 7-inch versions, and “Rodeo Jones” came from the sessions for Diary.

“Say So” began as an album track on Hot Pink and became a sleeper hit after a dance to it spread on TikTok, entering the Hot 100 without label promotion or radio play. A remix with Nicki Minaj later went to number one, the first chart-topper for both artists.

Doja Cat co-produced parts of the record with names including Yeti Beats and Kool Kojak. Smino appears on “Won’t Bite” and Gucci Mane on “Like That”. The album debuted at 93 on the Billboard 200 and climbed to number nine in May 2020, her first top 10 album there.