Lyrics to
When A Man Loves A Woman

This version of When A Man Loves A Woman was released by Bette Midler in 1979.

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When he held me in his arms,
when he held me in his arms and said,
“Baby, baby, baby, you are the only one for me.”

When a man loves a woman,
can’t keep his mind on nothing else.
He’ll trade the world
for the good thing he found.
Yeah, if she’s bad, he can’t see it.
She can do no wrong.
Turn his back on his best friend
if he put her down.

When a man loves a woman,
spend his very last dime
tryin’ to hold on to what he needs.
Give up all his comforts,
go out and sleep out in the rain,
if she says, “Baby, that is how it’s gonna be.”

When a man loves a woman,
give up everything that he has,
tryin’ to hold on to her precious love,
cryin, “Baby, baby please don’t treat me bad.”

When a man loves a woman
down deep in his soul,
she can bring him such misery.
If she’s playin’ him for a fool
he’s the last one to know.
Lovin’ eyes don’t ever see.

So, this man says he loves me, he loves me.
He gives me everything, everything,
everything that he has,
tryin’ to hold on to my precious love,
cryin’, “Baby, baby, baby, don’t you, don’t you
treat me, treat me bad.”
Ohhhh, oh I need him.

Yeah, when a man loves a woman
he can do her no wrong.
He could never hold another girl.
Why you tell me you love me, baby,
and run out ah-ah-ah-on the sly?
Baby, baby, this is a man’s world.
No, no.
Oh, baby, change has got to come
in this man’s world.

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Want more lyrics and songs by Bette Midler?

Bette Midler has released many songs over the years besides When A Man Loves A Woman. Bette Midler released songs from 1972 to 2006 spanning across albums like The Divine Miss M, Bette Midler, Songs For The New Depression, Broken Blossom, Live At Last, Thighs And Whispers, The Rose, Divine Madness, No Frills, Mud Will Be Flung Tonight!, Beaches, Some People's Lives, For The Boys, Gypsy, Bette Of Roses, Bathhouse Betty, Bette, Bette Midler Sings The Rosemary Clooney Songbook, Bette Midler Sings The Peggy Lee Songbook, and Cool Yule. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Bette Midler.

If you're a fan of popular 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1979 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and When A Man Loves A Woman by Bette Midler

The lyrics for When A Man Loves A Woman are defined as the words making up the song released by Bette Midler in 1979. It also includes the verses and words used by the background chorus in the song. Like many hit songs, the lyrics to When A Man Loves A Woman have different meanings to different people. While it is clear in some of the lyrics what the artist is trying to really say, only Bette Midler and those working with them know all of the meanings behind all of the lyrics to their songs.

Some folks are interested in word and phrase etymology. It is easy to understand the lyrics to When A Man Loves A Woman by Bette Midler if you think through it. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to When A Man Loves A Woman" means the words set to the music of When A Man Loves A Woman, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Bette Midler. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to When A Man Loves A Woman and the lyrics to When A Man Loves A Woman are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Bette Midler who came here looking just for the lyrics to When A Man Loves A Woman, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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