Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

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"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"
Single by The Platters
B-side "No Matter What You Are"
Released 1958
Genre Doo wop
Length 2:40
Label Mercury
Writer(s) Otto Harbach, Jerome Kern
The Platters singles chronology
"I Wish"
(1958)		 "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"
(1958)		 "Enchanted"
(1959)
"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"
Single by Blue Haze
B-side "Anna Rosanna"
Released 1972
Format 7" single
Genre Reggae
Length 3:16
Label A&M
Writer(s) Otto Harbach, Jerome Kern

"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" is a show tune written by American composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Otto Harbach for their 1933 operetta Roberta. It was performed by Irene Dunne for the 1935 film adaptation, costarring 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. 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 in 1959.

In 1956, Vic Damone covered this song with a very dramatic, different and interesting rendition. "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" became one of Vic Damone's most famous songs. A 1972 remake by British band Blue Haze also became popular. Saxophone player Boots Randolph did an acoustic cover 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.

Australian singer Jason Donovan recorded the song for his album "Let It Be Me" (2008).

[edit] Covers

[edit] In Popular Culture

The song has been featured in several films, including George Lucas's American Graffiti (1973) (The Platters recording) and much later in the 2004 Golden Globe-winning film Being Julia, directed by István Szabó. J.D. Souther's rendition is the centerpiece song to Steven Spielberg's 1989 film Always, and features significantly in both the plot and soundtrack of Hou Hsiao-Hsien's 2005 film, Three Times. It has also appeared in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's "The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant". Additionally, Cher's character briefly sings the last verse of the song during the 1999 film Tea With Mussolini. "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" is the title of the 2007 pilot episode of the AMC original drama Mad Men. It appears in the end of Tropic Thunder. In Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caufield listens to this song when he is at the carousel.

Preceded by
"The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)" by David Seville and The Chipmunks		 Billboard Hot 100 number-one single
January 13, 1959 – February 2, 1959 (3 weeks)		 Succeeded by
"Stagger Lee" by Lloyd Price

[edit] See also

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