Miss Bette Davis

Bette Davis is not usually thought of as a singer, but her long career included several exceptions to that impression. In particular, in 1943 she gave a credible rendition of the comic war-related song “They’re Either Too Young or Too Old” in the all-star World War II extravaganza movie Thank Your Lucky Stars, and in 1952 she starred in the Broadway musical Two’s Company. In the mid-’70s, Davis, who was approaching her late sixties, accepted an invitation to cut an album for EMI Records at Abbey Road Studios in London. Producer Norman Newell and arranger/conductor Roger Webb obviously were students of her work and had an appreciation for the strengths and limitations of her voice. Not surprisingly, the album is in essence a musical précis of Davis’ career. It includes a new recording of “They’re Either Too Young or Too Old”; re-recordings of the two sides of her 1965 Bell Records single “Life Is a Lonely Thing”/”Mother of the Bride”; performances of songs from her films (“It Can’t Be Wrong” from Now, Voyager, “I’ve Written a Letter to Daddy” from Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, and the title song from Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte); and a re-created dialogue excerpt from the movie classic All About Eve. The other songs have a mature, philosophical tone appropriate to the singer’s age, particularly “Growing Older, Feeling Younger,” contributed by Newell and Webb. Davis was not a great singer, by any means, but she could carry a tune as well as, say, Marlene Dietrich, if not better, and like Dietrich she had a distinctive, identifiable voice that allowed her to inject a heavy dose of acting into her singing. The result was a perfectly respectable recording to be treasured by her fans. – William Ruhlmann