BETTE MIDLER and I have a wonderful and strange relationship. But then everything about Bette is wonderful and strange, isn't it? Here she is performing that song that I wrote with Peggy Sarlin "I Regret Everything" (the video is just a bunch of Bette clips somebody put together on You Tube.)  Check it out and then I'll tell you the story...

Song © Bill Burnett and Peggy Sarlin; Please click here for lyrics

A long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, my friend Marc Shaiman was Bette's musical director and producer. Bette was recording an album and Marc asked me to send him whatever material I had that the Divine Miss M might like.  I sent him a bunch of stuff and among the tunes was this one, a send-up of Edith Piaf's Je ne regret rien, written by me and Peggy Sarlin. When Bette heard it she reportedly fell off her chair laughing.  It was a shoo-in to go on the new album...the one that went triple platinum and had the lovely "Wind Beneath My Wings" on it.  Naturally we were thrilled.  But then some chill wind blew through and Bette decided not to include the song on the album. Bummer.  When the album came out, the reviewers loved it, but some said "There's nothing funny on this album.  What happened to the funny Bette Midler?"  And I'm told that Bette herself said she regretted not including I Regret Everything on that record. She even mentioned it on talk shows now and then.  "What ever happened to that I Regret Everything song?"  

The story has a happy ending.  Patti Lupone decided to cover the song on her album "Matters of The Heart". A whole boatload of cabaret singers have covered it. And about 15 years after the initial demo knocked her off her chair Bette sang the song as the first act closer in her Divine Miss Millennium Tour.  It brought the house down and turned into a rousing singalong.  And apparently she included it again in her Kiss My Brass concert tour in 2003.  All of this is very cool, because I think the world of Bette Midler and count her as one of our greatest artists.  It's an honor to have her even consider doing my material.

Here's the original demo performed by my good friend Betty Silberman:

If you'd like to purchase the original "I Regret Everything" please click on the button below: