1964
SMILE * BETTY EVERETT & JERRY BUTLER * FONTANA 528 * UK
Smile was the second of four singles released in the USA on Vee Jay (see below) records by Betty Everett and Jerry Butler, and the second of only two to be released in the UK. An unashamedly sentimental song which would typify to many the more schmaltzy side of Pop music, but the song is embedded in a very critical beginning having originally been the theme music for Charlie Chaplin's last silent picture Modern Times.
Modern Times was a biting and prescient critique of corporate capitalism and its
facilitator the state. For example when the President of the factory shouts to the worker
through the telescreen in the restroom to the factory worker, " Hey you!
Get back to work!" , or how about the 'mechanical talking salesman'
"Good morning, my friends. This record comes to you through the Sales
Talk Transcription Company, Incorporated: your speaker, the Mechanical Salesman.
May I take the pleasure of introducing Mr. J. Widdecombe Billows, the inventor
of the Billows Feeding Machine, a practical device which automatically feeds
your men while at work? Don't stop for lunch: be ahead of your competitor. The
Billows Feeding Machine will eliminate the lunch hour, increase your production,
and decrease your overhead." no prizes for recognizing these paradigms
in our Modern Times. The lyrics were added
in 1954 by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons, and, sung by Nat King Cole, the
song became an encouraging message of comfort and support to many in the bleaker
times of racial and class struggles, as it was in the period of contention and
conflict during the civil rights movements of the mid 1960s when Betty
Everett and Jerry Butler recorded this version.
SMILE * BETTY EVERETT & JERRY BUTLER * VJ 633 * USA
See also:
JERRY BUTLER
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| Giving Up On Love | Find Another Girl | Only The Strong Survive |
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| Isle Of Sirens | You Can Run | A Lonely Soldier | Aware Of Love |
BETTY EVERETT
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| There’ll Come A Time | The Shoop Shoop Song | Getting Mighty Crowded | I’ve Got A Claim On You |
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| Your No Good | Your Loving Arms | Chained To A Memory | Happy I Long To Be | Until You Were Gone |