There’s a connection between Broadway and Bette Midler’s signature hit. “The Rose” was the title track of the 1979 Academy Award-nominated film starring Midler as fictional rock star, Mary Rose Foster, who went by the nickname “The Rose.” Though the song doesn’t play until the closing credits, its three minutes of fame left a huge mark.
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Not only did Midler’s version top the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and hit No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, but she also won the coveted Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1981, beating out Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer, Olivia Newton-John and Irene Cara. But the song would’ve never existed had it not been for Broadway star Amanda McBroom.
Meet the Writer of “The Rose”
Born in August 1947 in Los Angeles, California, McBroom got her start as a cabaret performer. Her first claim to fame was starring in the off-Broadway productions of Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Paris before getting her big break on Broadway in the 1973 production of Seesaw. In addition to her Broadway career, McBroom has also appeared in a variety of TV shows and films including Star Trek, Taxi, Charlie’s Angels, M*A*S*H and Gunsmoke.
In 1989, she premiered her own musical, Heartbeats, which was comprised of love songs she’d written and recorded through the years. “I’ve always loved love songs,” she told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s people that make love so much more complicated than it needs to be.” She’s also released several albums, the most recent being Voices in 2017, which includes her rendition of “The Rose.” McBroom initially wrote “The Rose” in 1977 for herself and was performing it at local clubs before Midler turned it into a global sensation.
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“Writing came to me late,” McBroom tells Talkin’ Broadway about songwriting. “I was an actress, and a folk singer in my spare time. I didn’t start songwriting until the mid-70s when I was on the road with Brel.” The multi-faceted artist adds that the first time she performed a song she wrote for a live audience was in 1975 at a nightclub. “People liked it, and that was the first time I had any idea that people might be interested in my music,” she continues. “It had never occurred to me. It was one of the scariest moments of my life, to be on a stage singing my own songs.”
In addition to “The Rose,” McBroom has written songs for eight animated movies with frequent songwriting collaborator Michele Brourman, including The Land Before Time series. She also wrote songs for Cop Rock and the soap operas The Young and the Restless and As the World Turns.
Midler wasn’t the only person to record “The Rose.” Conway Twitty sent his version to the top of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in 1983, while Irish folk band The Dubliners had a hit in their native country in 1991. Fellow Irish boy band Westlife also topped the Ireland chart with their 2006 cover.
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