English Practice

Smile

This song was originally recorded by Nat King Cole in 1954. It became one of my favorites when I was a teenager. I never heard the Michael Jackson version until shortly after his death, when my brother sent me this story.

A few years back, I attended the CSU Summer Arts program in Fresno. It was a two week workshop on recording with the famed engineer, Bruce Swedien, who had won numerous Grammys and whose credits included the great Count Basie recordings, the Oscar Peterson Trio and, of course, all of Michael Jackson's albums. He had also recorded the classic Chicago Symphony stuff from the late 1950's with Fritz Reiner, Artur Rubinstein etc.....etc. When I met him he was working with Jennifer Lopez.

One evening in Fresno Mr. Swedien presented a public program in which he played and lectured on some of his favorite recordings from the many years he had been in the business. These were transfers from his original master tapes which had been digitized at high resolution and played back from the stage on a suburb sound system.

At the close of the program, he announced his last selection and relayed some information about the recording session. The song was "Smile", written by Charlie Chaplin (the little tramp) for one of his movies. This session had taken place at a large studio in New York City which could accommodate an entire symphony orchestra as well as having isolation booths for vocals. The musicians were made up of the finest NYC session players. The arrangement was by Quincy Jones.

According to Mr. Swedien, Jackson never recorded until he had had at least an hour of warm-up exercises with his vocal coach. The orchestra rehearsed their parts for a time after which Mr. Jackson appeared to record the song. It was done on the first take with no alterations or overdubs later. There was no need. What you hear is how it was. When the last note had died out, there was silence for a moment after which the visibly moved musicians, who had been hearing the vocals on headphones, broke into spontaneous applause which continued for some time. It was, according to Mr. Swedien, "one of the great musical moments of my life".

Geoffrey Mulder

Smile, though your heart is aching,
Smile, even though it's breaking.
When there are clouds in the sky
You'll get by.

If you smile with your fear and sorrow,
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You'll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just...

Light up your face with gladness,
Hide ev'ry trace of sadness.
Although a tear may be ever so near,
That's the time you must keep on trying,
Smile, what's the use of crying?
You'll find that life is still worthwhile,
If you just...

Smile, though your heart is aching
Smile, even though it's breaking
When there are clouds in the sky
You'll get by
If you smile through your fear and sorrow
Smile, and maybe tomorrow
You'll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just smile.

That's the time you must keep on trying
Smile, what's the use of crying
You'll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just smile.