American singer songwriter Bette Midler’s ‘Friends‘ was one of a couple of tracks played on the latest episode of The Simpsons this week — The Simpsons, Season 35, Episode 3, “McMansion & Wife“.
In the case of ‘Friends‘, it was played on the popular animated comedy when Marge and Homer are hanging around with their new next door neighbors because, yep, they’re “friends”.
The pair join them for massages, crazy golf, horse-back riding, and drinks in a fancy bar, only to realize they were just being “wooed” so Homer would allow them to do a massive renovation on their house.
Not that anyone was surprised. Of course.
When did Better Midler’s ‘Friends‘ come out?
The song is the third single released from the singer’s now almost iconic debut studio album The Divine Miss M.
An album that came out in 1973 on the Atlantic record label.
Better Midler recorded the pop track after she had heard it being sung by one of the two songwriters (Buzzy Linhart), loved it and asked if she could perform it live.
The song went down so well with the audience, it wasn’t long afterwards that Midler was recording it for her debut album.
Soon after release the pop rock track grabbed huge attention in the U.S. as well, and went on to become a big hit for the American singer, charting on three American charts — with a #40 ranking on the Billboard Hot 100 — and also hitting two charts in Canada.
It has since experienced several iconic entertainment industry moments when it was used on an episode of The Muppets, and on the smash-hit DreamWorks film Shrek.
You can listen to Better Midler’s ‘Friends‘ from this week’s episode of the probably-never-likely-to-stop-running animated series The Simpsons in the video, and via the singer’s The Divine Miss M album, and you might hear why.