This Iconic Bette Midler Hit Was Initially Rejected Multiple Times

In 1980, Bette Midler released “The Rose”, a song written by Amanda McBroom. A No. 1 hit for Midler, the song is part of the soundtrack for the film of the same name, about the life of Janis Joplin, also starring Midler.

McBroom had the idea for the song while listening to Leo Sayer’s “Magdalena”. A line in the song said, “Your love is like a razor / My heart is just a scar.” Although McBroom liked the song, she disagreed with the sentiment.

“As I continued to drive down the road, the thought came, ‘What, then, do I think love is?’ “ McBroom recalls. “Suddenly, it was as if someone had opened a window in the top of my head. Words came pouring in. I had to keep reciting them to myself as I drove faster and faster towards home, so I wouldn’t forget them. I screeched into my driveway, ran into the house, past various bewildered dogs and cats and husband, and sat down at the piano. Ten minutes later, ‘The Rose’ was there.”

How “The Rose” by Bette Midler Almost Didn’t Make It Into the Film

A friend of McBroom’s took “The Rose” to the producers, who hated the song. A ballad, “The Rose” says, “When the night has been too lonely / And the road has been too long / And you think that love is only / For the lucky and the strong / Just remember in the winter / Far beneath the bitter snows / Lies the seed that with the sun’s love / In the spring becomes the rose.“

“They thought it was dull and not rock and roll and totally wrong,” McBroom remembers. “They put it in the reject box. But Paul Rothchild, who had been Janis Joplin’s producer, and was now the music supervisor on the film, hauled it out and asked them to reconsider. They again said no. So he mailed it to Bette Midler, the star of the movie.”

Fortunately, Midler heard what Rothchild heard, even though the producers missed it at first.

“She liked it, lobbied in favor of it,” McBroom says. “And that’s how it got into the film and changed my life forever.”

Midler received a Grammy nomination for “The Rose”. She went on to have success with other songs on soundtracks, including “Wind Beneath My Wings” for the 1988 film, Beaches.

In 1983, Conway Twitty had a No. 1 country song with “The Rose”. His version appears on his Dream Maker album.

Photo by Lynn Goldsmith/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images

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