Song of the Day: Smile

The song of the day for Saturday, December 27, 2014 is “Smile.”

About This Song

Charlie Chaplin wrote “Smile” in 1936 for his last silent film, Modern Times, which shows Chaplin and his costar Paulette Goddard, walking hand-in-hand up the road as the sun rises and as this song plays, in one of the most iconic scenes ever filmed. The lyrics are by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons.

About This Version

This is Bennett’s second studio recording of “Smile”; the first was in 1959. It was released as a single and was later included on his 1962 album I Left My Heart In San Francisco. Today’s version was recorded in 1965 and was arranged by Al Cohn and conducted by Johnny Mandel.

About Today

On December 27, 1965, 49 years ago today, Tony Bennett recorded three songs for his upcoming masterpiece The Movie Song Album, which was released in 1966. These three songs were “Smile,” “The Second Time Around,” and “Maybe September.” It was hard to choose a song from these three, but I do love “Smile.”

“Smile,” as well as The Movie Song Album, is available from iTunes.

And yes, it’s Saturday and yes, we have a video. Our video today is from Tony Bennett’s concert at Bumbershoot in Seattle Washington on September 2, 2012. It’s an amateur video and the quality isn’t great. But I was at that performance and I have so many fond memories of the concert; you read about it here. At the end, after a very long standing ovation, he thanked the audience and said “We will remember today for the rest of our lives.” So will we … so will we.