The Platters: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

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This classic was written by Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach for the 1933 Broadway musical Roberta.

Here is the first hit version of it, by Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra with vocal refrain by Bob Laurence, from 1934.

It was recorded many times after that by names such as Harry Belafonte, Sarah Vaughan and Nat King Cole. The Platters recorded it in 1958 for their album Remember When? with the marvellous tenor voice of Tony Williams. It was released as a single in November 1958 and reached No 1 on both sides of the Atlantic either that year or early the following year (I can’t pin it down). According to Wikipedia, the record’s producer Buck Ram said that Harbach praised the group for ‘reviving his song with taste’ but Kern’s widow disliked it so much that she considered legal action to prevent its distribution.

Bryan Ferry’s 1974 recording on the album Another Time, Another Place is one of Alan’s favourites.

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