"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" is a show tune written by American composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Otto Harbach for their 1933 musical Roberta. It was sung in the original show by Tamara Drasin. It was originally recorded by Gertrude Niesen, on October 13, 1933, on the Victor label 24454. It was performed by Irene Dunne for the 1935 film adaptation, co-starring Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Randolph Scott. It has been covered by numerous artists, beginning with Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra with Bob Lawrence on vocal, which went to the top of the charts in 1934, and including Nat "King" Cole, who first covered it in 1946. It also featured in Lovely to Look At, a 1952 remake of "Roberta", where it was sung by Kathryn Grayson. Possibly the most famous version was recorded in 1958 by the doo wop group The Platters, which became a number one hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 — it reached number three on the R&B charts in 1959^[1] — and on the UK charts, where it spent five weeks at the top in February and March of that same year.^[2]

In 1956, Vic Damone covered this song with a very dramatic and different rendition, which became one of his most famous songs. For bandleader Ray Conniff it was one of his signature songs during his career. A 1972 remake by British band Blue Haze, formed by Johnny Arthey and Phil Swern^[3], also became popular. Saxophone player Boots Randolph did an instrumental version of the song on the B-side of his LP Yakety Sax. Bryan Ferry recorded a quavering, briefly popular version of the song in 1974 on the album Another Time, Another Place, which reached number 17 on the UK charts in September 1974. Jerry Garcia, who was named after Jerome Kern, released a music video in the early 1990s covering the classic tune, with actress Ashley Judd sitting in the background listening. Similarly in the early 1990s the song was performed by Eartha Kitt as part of her work with a small jazz combo in Germany; these recordings are preserved under the name Thinking Jazz.

[edit] Notable recordings

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• Cannonball Adderley on his album 'African Waltz' in 1961
• Larry Adler
• John Alford
• Louis Armstrong
• Patti Austin
• Harry Belafonte
• BoA
• Clifford Brown
• Cher
• Richard Clayderman
• Ray Conniff
• Deborah Cox
• Johnny Dankworth - Too Cool For The Blues (2010)
• Jason Donavan in his 2008 album Let It Be Me
• Tommy Dorsey
• Kurt Elling
• Bryan Ferry
• Helen Forrest
• Serge Gainsbourg
• Jerry Garcia
• Judy Garland
• Benny Goodman
• Henry Hall
• Billie Holiday
• Engelbert Humperdinck
• Keith Jarrett
• Vytautas Juozapaitis (Lithuanian version "Ziedu Puga")
• Eartha Kitt
• Peggy Lee
• Johnny Mathis
• George Melachrino
• Glenn Miller
• Thelonious Monk
• Nana Mouskouri on her 1962 album "Nana Mouskouri in New York" (The Girl from Greece Sings)
• Elaine Paige on her 1993 album Romance & the Stage
• Charlie Parker in Bird at St. Nick's (1950)
• Edith Piaf
• The Platters
• Sonny Rollins
• David Sanborn on his album Pearls (1995)^[4]
• Tamara Sinyavskaya
• JD Souther, for the 1989 Steven Spielberg movie Always, in which he also appears performing the song
• Jeri Southern - The Very Thought of You: The Decca Years, 1951-1957
• Jo Stafford - Autumn in New York (1950)
• Barbra Streisand on her 2009 album Love Is The Answer
• Art Tatum
• Sarah Vaughan
• Caetano Veloso
• Dinah Washington
• Margaret Whiting - Margaret Whiting Sings the Jerome Kern Songbook (1960)
• Timi Yuro
• Led Zeppelin (a part of the song)
• Zoot from the Muppet Show
• Tatsuro Yamashita
• Sha Na Na - Johnny Contardo

[edit] In popular culture

The song has been featured in several films including:

• The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972 film)
• American Graffiti (1973), performed by The Platters
• Night of the Creeps (1986)
• The Terrorizers (1986)
• Kill Me Again (1989), performed by Dinah Washington
• Always (1989), featuring J.D. Souther's rendition
• Tea With Mussolini (1999), Cher's character briefly sings the last verse of the song
• Being Julia (2004)
• Three Times (2005), features significantly in both the plot and soundtrack
• Blue Valentine (2010)

Polly Bergen sang "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" on the series premiere of her NBC variety show, The Polly Bergen Show, on NBC, September 21, 1957.^[5]

In Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield listens to this song when he is at the carousel.

The song was performed by Shirley Bassey on a 1971 edition of The Morecambe and Wise Show, with assistance (in the form of well-meaning but less-than-competent stagehands) from the two comedians.

"Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" is the title of the pilot episode of the AMC TV series Mad Men

The song was played in an episode of Criminal Minds while a serial killer was sharing a dance with his sister.

"In a seedy karaoke bar, by the banks of the mighty Bosphorus, there's a Japanese man in a business suit singing "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,"' are lyrics from the song "Wheels" by Cake on their fifth studio album "Pressure Chief."

[edit] See also

• List of 1930s jazz standards
• List of number-one singles in Australia during the 1950s
• List of number-one singles from the 1950s (UK)
• List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 1959 (U.S.)
• List of number-one hits of 1959 (Italy)

[edit] References