Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (Song)

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“Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” is a show tune written by American composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Otto Harbach for the 1933 musical comedy Roberta. The song was sung in the Broadway show by Tamara Drasin. Its first recorded performance was by Gertrude Niesen, who recorded the song with orchestral direction from Ray Sinatra, Frank Sinatra’s second cousin, on October 13, 1933. Niesen’s recording of the song was released by Victor, with the B-side, “Jealousy”, featuring Isham Jones and his Orchestra.

The line — When your heart’s on fire, smoke gets in your eyes — apparently comes from a Russian proverb.

By the time of Roberta in 1933, the tune had been composed for a tap dance in the 1927 musical Show Boat, but was not adopted; in 1932 it was retried as a march for a radio series theme tune.

The song was also included in the 1952 remake of Roberta, Lovely to Look At, in which it was performed by Kathryn Grayson, and was a number 1 chart hit in 1959 for the Platters.

Recording history

1930s

Paul Whiteman had the first hit recording of the song on the record charts in 1934.

Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra performed the song with vocals by Bob Lawrence. This version of the song topped music charts in 1934.

The Tommy Dorsey orchestra released their version in 1938.

The B-side to Dorsey’s single was “Night and Day“.

During the mid-to-late 1930s, Larry Adler and Henry Hall recorded live radio performaces of the song on BBC Radio. Adler’s rendition was a syncopated, harmonica arrangement.

Hall’s was with the BBC orchestra with vocals by Dan Donovan. Hall’s version was released as a 10″ single.

Pianist Art Tatum said in an introduction in 1955 that he performed “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” in the 1930s.

The song was reprised by Irene Dunne, who performed it in the 1935 film adaptation of the musical co-starring Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Randolph Scott.

1940s

Andre Kostelanetz recorded an easy listening arrangement of the song for Columbia Masterworks (4265-M) in 1941.

In 1941, the Benny Goodman Orchestra played the song on the radio with Helen Forrest.

Forrest left the ensemble during the early part of 1941. Goodman replaced her with Peggy Lee. Her recording for a Mutual broadcast was released on the album Benny and Sid Roll ‘Em.

Glenn Miller conducted his rendition of the song at Abbey Road Studios in 1944, but due to his death later that year, his version was unreleased until 1995.

On October 30, 1946, Nat “King” Cole recorded the song in his trio with Oscar Moore on guitar and Johnny Miller on double bass, during a live broadcast from New York City. Cole performed it on television in 1957 for The Nat King Cole Show.

Harry Belafonte made a recording of the song in 1949 with jazz saxophonist Zoot Sims. This was one of Belafonte’s first recordings.

Sims’ performance was parodied on December 10, 1977, on The Muppet Show by Zoot from Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem, the character he inspired.

The song was covered by Nat King Cole (left), Jo Stafford (center), and Sarah Vaughan (right).

1950s and later

In 1950, Charlie Parker and Jo Stafford each released versions of the song on their respective albums, Bird at St. Nick’s

and Autumn in New York.

Eartha Kitt recorded the song for her 1954 album That Bad Eartha.

Dinah Washington released the song in 1956 on her album Dinah!.

Jeri Southern named her 1957 album When Your Heart’s On Fire after a lyric from the song; the album features her version of the song.

The same year as Nat King Cole’s televised performance of the song, Polly Bergen performed the song during the series premiere of her variety show The Polly Bergen Show, originally airing September 21, 1957.

In 1958, Sarah Vaughan released her rendition on her album, No Count Sarah.

Eartha Kitt recorded “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” with the Henri Rene Orchestra in 1952.

These sessions also yielded her hit single “Santa Baby“.

J. D. Souther covered the song for the soundtrack to director Steven Spielberg‘s 1989 film Always, and has a cameo appearance performing it at a dance with the main characters, played by Richard Dreyfuss and Holly Hunter.

The Platters version

“Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” was recorded in 1958 by the Platters for their album Remember When? The group’s version became a number one hit in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100 music chart. In 1959 it peaked at No. 3 on the Rhythm and Blues chart. The song spent 20 weeks on the UK charts, peaking at Number 1 for one week on March 20 of that same year. Buck Ram, the producer, said that Harbach praised them “for reviving his song with taste.” The widow of composer Jerome Kern disliked the recording so much she considered legal action to prevent its distribution. However, she was informed that she was going to get huge royalties from the sales of the single. It was expected to sell over a million copies, and she dropped her lawsuit.

In 2019, the song by The Platters was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Chart history

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

All-time charts

Blue Haze version

Johnny Arthey‘s studio group Blue Haze released a version of “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” as a single in 1972, and on the album Blue Haze the following year. Their version was an international hit, reaching the top 10 in Belgium, the Netherlands, and on Billboard‘s Easy Listening chart.

• Ray Conniff: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

• Josh Kelley – Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

• Chantal Chamberland – Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

• Emmet Cohen / Scott Robinson – Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

• The Vintage Explosion – Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

• John Alford – Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

• Julio Iglesias – Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

• Mantovani And His Orchestra – Smoke Gets in your Eyes

• Judy Garland – Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

• Engelbert Humperdinck – Smoke Gets In Your eyes

• Patti Austin – Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

• Teresa Carpio – Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

• Chris Botti – Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

• Miles Davis – Smoke gets in your eyes

• Joni James – Smoke Gets in your Eyes

• 張菲 Chang Faye – Smoke Gets In Your Eyes 情霧迷濛你的眼

• Billy Vaughn – Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

Chart performance

Roberta (1935 film)

Roberta is a 1935 American musical film released by RKO Radio Pictures and directed by William A. Seiter. It stars Irene Dunne, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and features Randolph Scott, Helen Westley, Victor Varconi and Claire Dodd. The film was an adaptation of the 1933 Broadway musical Roberta, which in turn was based on the novel Gowns by Roberta by Alice Duer Miller. It was a solid hit, showing a net profit of more than three-quarters of a million dollars.

The film kept the famous songs “Yesterdays“, “Let’s Begin” (with altered lyrics), and “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” from the play, along with a fourth song, “I’ll Be Hard to Handle“. Three songs from the play were dropped—”The Touch of Your Hand”, “Something Had to Happen” and “You’re Devastating”. Two songs were added to this film, “I Won’t Dance” (resurrected from the flop Kern show Three Sisters) and “Lovely to Look At”, which both became #1 hits in 1935. The latter addition was nominated for the Best Song Oscar. The songs “I Won’t Dance” and “Lovely to Look At” have remained so popular that they are now almost always included in revivals and recordings of Roberta.

Roberta is the third Astaire-Rogers film, and the only one to be remade with other actors. MGM did so in 1952, entitling the new Technicolor version Lovely to Look At. MGM had bought Roberta in 1945 with the intention of producing a remake, keeping it out of general circulation until the 1970s. Roberta was the first of three pairings for Irene Dunne and Randolph Scott; High, Wide and Handsome (1937)

and My Favorite Wife (1940) were the other two.

Plot

John Kent, a former star football player at Harvard, goes to Paris with his friend Huck Haines and Huck’s dance band, the Wabash Indianians. Alexander Voyda has booked the band, but refuses to let them play when he finds the musicians are not the Indians he expected, but merely from Indiana.

John turns to the only person he knows in Paris for help, his Aunt Minnie, who owns the fashionable “Roberta” gown shop. While there, he meets her chief assistant (and secretly the head designer), Stephanie. John is quickly smitten with her.

Meanwhile, Huck unexpectedly stumbles upon someone he knows very well. “Countess Scharwenka”, a temperamental customer at Roberta’s, turns out to be his hometown sweetheart Lizzie Gatz. She gets Huck’s band an engagement at the nightclub where she is a featured entertainer, and Huck agrees to keep her true identity a secret.

Two things trouble John: One is Ladislaw, a handsome, deposed Russian prince and doorman, who seems too interested in Stephanie. The other is the memory of Sophie, the snobbish, conceited girlfriend he left behind after they quarreled about his lack of sophistication and polish.

When Aunt Minnie dies unexpectedly without leaving a will, John inherits the shop. Knowing nothing about women’s fashion and aware that his aunt intended for Stephanie to inherit the business, he persuades Stephanie to remain on as his partner. Correspondents flock to hear what a football player has to say about feminine fashions. Huck gives the answers, making a lot of weird statements about the innovations John is planning to introduce.

Sophie arrives in Paris, attracted by John’s good fortune. She enters the shop, looking for a dress, but is dissatisfied with everything Stephanie shows her. Huck persuades her to choose a gown that John had ordered to be discarded as too vulgar. When John sees her in it, they quarrel for the final time.

John reproaches Stephanie for selling Sophie the gown. Terribly hurt, Stephanie quits the shop. With Roberta putting on a fashion show in a week, Huck takes over the design work, with predictably bad results. When Stephanie sees his awful creations, she is persuaded to return to save Roberta’s reputation.

The show is a triumph, helped by the entertainment provided by Huck, Countess Scharwenka, and the band. The climax is a gown modeled by Stephanie herself. At the show, John overhears that she and Ladislaw are leaving Paris and mistakenly assumes that they have married. Later, he congratulates her for becoming a princess. When she informs him that Ladislaw is merely her cousin and that the title has been hers since birth, the lovers are reunited. Huck and Lizzie, who decide to get married, do a final tap dance sequel.

Cast

• Irene Dunne as Princess Stephanie
• Fred Astaire as Huck Haines
• Ginger Rogers as Scharwenka, also known as Elizabeth Gatz
• Randolph Scott as John Kent
• Helen Westley as Madame Roberta, John’s Aunt Minnie
• Claire Dodd as Sophie
• Victor Varconi as Prince Ladislaw
• Luis Alberni as Alexander Petrovich Moskovitch Voyda, nightclub owner
• Ferdinand Munier as Lord Henry Delves
• Torben Meyer as Albert
• Adrian Rosley as Professor
• Bodil Rosing as Fernande

Members of the band (uncredited)

• Candy Candido
• Muzzy Marcellino
• Hal Borne
• Gene Sheldon
• Bill Carey
• Paul McLarand
• Charles Sharpe
• Phil Cuthbert
• William Dunn
• Delmon Davis
• Ivan Dow
• Howard Lally

Cast notes:

• Lucille Ball, with platinum blond hair, appears in her first RKO film as a model wearing an elaborate feather cape, after the vocal by Dunne, in the fashion show.

Musical numbers

Only four songs from the stage musical – “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” “Yesterdays,” “I’ll Be Hard to Handle” and “Let’s Begin”-– were used in the film; some of Harbach’s lyrics were altered to avoid censorship problems. Music from three other songs from the stage play – “You’re Devastating,” “The Touch of Your Hand” and “Don’t Ask Me Not to Sing” – were used in the background. “I Won’t Dance” was originally presented in Three Sisters, a 1934 music by Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach, but Oscar Hammerstein II‘s lyrics were augmented by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh, who received screen credit for “Additional lyrics”. One song, “Lovely to Look At” was composed for the film, and was nominated for an Academy Award.

The dance arrangements were by Fred Astaire, and the dance director was Hermes Pan, the first time he was so credited (as “assistant dance director”). Astaire choreographed his dances two weeks before Kern had finished the score.

• “The Pipe Organ Number”: Astaire performing on the hands of his band arranged as a keyboard

• “Let’s Begin”: Comedy song and dance number by Astaire, Candy Candido and Gene Sheldon, with band (music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Otto Harbach)

• “Russian Lullaby”: Sung by Dunne with balalaika orchestra (traditional)

• “I’ll Be Hard to Handle“: Double dance by Astaire and Rogers, a tap number in which they “talk with their feet” (music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Otto Harbach and Bernard Dougall)

• “Yesterdays”: Sung by Dunne, with guitar and string bass accompaniment (music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Otto Harbach)

• “I Won’t Dance“: Song by Rogers and Astaire, Astaire introduces at piano; followed by a solo dance to the melody by Astaire (music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh) Hal Borne, who played one of the “Wabash Indianaians”, and was Astaire’s real-life rehearsal pianist, played piano off-screen with Astaire as part of the piano introduction.

• “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes“: Sung by Dunne; reprise danced by Rogers and Astaire (music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Otto Harbach)

• “Fashion Pageant”: Parade of models in an array of costumes to a medley of songs, with Astaire as master of ceremonies
• “Lovely to Look At”: Dunne solo, Astaire reprise, and Rogers and Astaire dance (music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh)

• “Finale Dance”: Astaire and Roger

Production

RKO outbid MGM and Paramount for the rights to the stage play, paying $65,000. Roberta was in production from November 26, 1934 to January 21, 1935. The rehearsal period lasted nine weeks. Shooting was postponed to accommodate the marriage of Ginger Rogers to actor Lew Ayres.

The studio borrowed Randolph Scott from Paramount for the film.

Several of the scenes in the film were written while the film was in production. Screenwriter Alan Scott and producer Pandro S. Berman were traveling across the country by train at the time, so the new scenes were telegraphed to the set from the train.

Reception

According to RKO records, the film made $1,467,000 in the US and Canada and $868,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $770,000. The film reportedly broke box office records wherever it was exhibited.

Adaptations

MGM bought the rights to Roberta in 1945 in order to produce a Technicolor remake, which was released in 1952 as Lovely to Look At, starring Kathryn Grayson, Red Skelton and Howard Keel and directed by Mervyn LeRoy.

MGM kept Roberta out of general circulation until the 1970s, although two television versions starring Bob Hope were broadcast by NBC in 1955 and 1958.

In popular culture

The Venetian fashion house Roberta di Camerino, founded by Giuliana Camerino in 1945, was named for the film.

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