Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
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Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

Interesting jazz notes and transcriptions for piano, double bass, drums and sax


smoke gets in your eyes.jpg"Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" is a song written by American composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Otto Harbach for their 1933 Broadway musical 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, possibly the most famous of which was recorded in 1959 by the doo wop group The Platters, which became a number one hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

In 1956, Vic Damone had 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. Brian Ferry recorded a quavering, briefly popular version of the song in 1974, on the album Another Place, Another Time; it reached no. 17 on the UK charts in September 1974.

The song has been featured in several films, including George Lucas's American Graffiti (1973) and much later in the 2004 Golden Globe-winning film Being Julia, directed by Istvan Szabo. The Platters' 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 2006 film, Three Times. "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" is the title of the 2007 pilot episode of the AMC original drama Mad Men.

 

Jerome Kern - Smoke Gets In Your Eyes Lyrics

Written by Jerome Kern (music) and Otto Harbach (lyrics) for the musical "Roberta" in 1933
Recording by The Platters was a # 1 hit in 1959
Remade in 1973 by Blue Haze, it hit # 27

They, said some day you'll find,
All who love are blind,
When you heart's on fire, you must realize,
Smoke gets in your eyes.

So I chaffed them, and I gaily laughed,
To think they would doubt our love,
And yet today, my love has gone away,
I am without my love.

Now laughing friends deride,
Tears I cannot hide,
So I smile and say, when a lovely flame dies,
Smoke gets in your eyes,

Smoke gets in your eyes.