Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

For other uses, see Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (disambiguation).

"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"
Song
B-side	"No Matter What You Are"

"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"
Song
B-side	"Anna Rosanna"

"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. 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 and reached number three on the R&B charts in 1959 .

In 1956, Vic Damone covered this song with a very dramatic and different 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.

Covers

• Clifford Brown
• Larry Adler
• Kurt Elling
• Louis Armstrong
• Patti Austin
• Cher
• Richard Clayderman
• Ray Conniff
• Deborah Cox
• Tommy Dorsey
• Serge Gainsbourg
• Judy Garland
• Benny Goodman
• 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
• Edith Piaf
• Harry Belafonte
• Sonny Rollins
• Roxy Music
• David Sanborn
• Barbra Streisand on her 2009 album Love Is The Answer
• Art Tatum
• Sarah Vaughan
• Dinah Washington
• Margaret Whiting
• Led Zeppelin (a part of the song)
• Zoot from the Muppet Show
• Charlie Parker in Bird at St. Nick's (1950)

In popular culture

The song has been featured in several films including:

• "The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972 film)
• American Graffiti (1973 film), performed by The Platters
• Always (1989 film), featuring J.D. Souther's rendition
• Tea With Mussolini (1999 film), Cher's character briefly sings the last verse of the song
• Being Julia (2004 film)
• Three Times (2005 film), features significantly in both the plot and soundtrack
• Tea With Mussolini (1999 film), Cher's character briefly sings the last verse of the song
• Tropic Thunder (2008 film)

"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" is the title of the 2007 pilot episode of the AMC original drama Mad Men.

In Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield listens to this song when he is at the carousel. The song title is also mentioned in the lyrics of the Cake song "Wheels".

A parody of the song was used in the British TV advert for Esso Blue paraffin (kerosene) rewording it as "They asked me how I knew / It was Esso Blue / I of course replied / With lower grades one buys / Smoke gets in your eyes".

See also

• List of 1930s jazz standards