Gay bathhouse (陣屋)" were built in the 1970s. Singer Bette Midler is well known for getting her start at the famous Continental Baths in New York City in the early 1970s, where she earned the nickname Bathhouse Betty. It was there, accompanied by pianist Barry Manilow (who, like the bathhouse patrons, sometimes wore only a white towel), that she created her stage persona "the Divine Miss M." On getting her start in bathhouses, Midler has remarked: Despite the way things turned out [with the AIDS crisis], I'm still proud of those days [when I got my start singing at the gay bathhouses].
Jackpot! The Best Bette BMG, this is the second single-disc compilation of Midler's best-known recordings, following 1993/1996's "Experience the Divine", and this time released by Warner Music Group's reissue subsidiary Rhino Entertainment. "Jackpot! The Best Bette" includes three titles from Midler's more recent albums for Columbia, "This Ole House", "Tenderly" and "Cool Yule", and also sees the debut of one previously unreleased track, "Something Your Heart's Been Telling Me", co-written by Midler, Robert Kraft and Barry Reynolds and originally cut as a demo by the singer herself in 1984 but first released by Roberta Flack who recorded the song for her 1991 album "Set