When you're smiling

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When You're Smiling (The Whole World Smiles at Me) is a pop song written by Mark Fisher , Joe Goodwin and Larry Shay and released in 1928. The song became a popular jazz standard from the 1930s .

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Louis Armstrong in the cloakroom of New York's Aquarium nightclub , c. 1946. Photograph by William P. Gottlieb

The song begins with the lines:

When you're smiling, when you're smiling,
The whole world smiles with you.
When you're laughing, when you're laughing,
The sun comes shining through.

The melody of the first four bars of the refrain reveals its harmonies: B flat major , B flat major / seventh chord , G major / seventh chord and C minor . "In the text line But when you're crying you bring on the rain , darker harmonies and chromatisms are used, but the cheerful harmonies dominate the last section of the song to bring the song to a happy conclusion."

First recordings and later cover versions

Became popular When You're Smiling in the United States initially through the versions of Seger Ellis (1928), Louis Armstrong ( Okeh , 1929) and Ted Wallace (1930). Armstrong played the song several times over the course of his career. Other musicians who covered the song from 1929 onwards included the Devine's Wisconsin Roof Orchestra (Broadway), the Louisiana Rhythm Kings around Red Nichols (Vocalion), King Oliver (Victor, with Frank Marvin , vocals) and the Duke Ellington Orchestra ( under the pseudonym The Ten Blackberries for banner, with Irving Mills , vocals), Jimmie Noone 's Apex Club Orchestra (vocalion) and Arthur Ross and his Westerners (Harmony 687, with Arthur Schutt , piano and Arthur Fields , vocals). Nat Gonella recorded in England in 1932 . Country singer Cliff Bruner (1938) also covered him.

The discographer Tom Lord lists a total of 538 (as of 2015) cover versions in the field of jazz , of which the recordings by Nat King Cole , Judy Garland , Benny Goodman , Billie Holiday , Dick Hyman , Ted Lewis , Art Pepper , Frank Sinatra , Benny Waters should be emphasized are. When You're Smiling is also a popular standard for many Revival and Dixieland bands, such as the Dutch Swing College Band . More recently, he was also introduced by Dr. John (with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band ), Bill Stewart (with Joe Lovano , Dave Holland and Marc Copland , 1990), Warren Vaché with the New York City All-Star Big Band (2000) and Mike Barone 's Big Band ( 2005) interpreted.

When You're Smiling also found use in several films; The King's Men sang him in You're a Lucky Fellow, Mr. Smith (1943, directed by Felix E. Feist). Frank Sinatra sang him in Resolute to Everything (1951), Roberta Flack in The Heist of Millions (1971) and Louis Armstrong's 1929 recording was used in the Cotton Club soundtrack . Representative for the year 1928, the music magazine Variety took the song in their list Hit Parade of a Half Century .

Notes and individual references

  1. ^ A b c d Marvin E. Paymer, Don E. Post: Sentimental Journey: Intimate Portraits of America's Great Popular Songs . 1999, p. 140
  2. ↑ a b c Tom Lord: Jazz discography (online)
  3. ↑ Marigold Nursery Rhymes and Songs B - page 28
  4. ↑ a b Don Tyler: Hit Songs, 1900-1955: American Popular Music of the Pre-Rock Era . 2007, p. 160.
  5. ↑ Irving Mills recorded the song again two days later, this time under the band name Mills' Merry Makers for Harmony Records . Ruby Weinstein (tp), Charlie Teagarden (tp, vcl), Jack Teagarden , (tb, vcl), Gil Rodin , Matty Matlock (cl, as), Larry Binyon (ts), Ed Bergman, Al Beller ( vln), Vic Briedis (p), Dick Morgan (bj, g), Harry Goodman (b, tu), Ray Bauduc (dr) and Elliott Jacoby (arr).
  6. ^ Tony Russell, Bob Pinson: Country Music Records: A Discography, 1921–42. P. 140
  7. ^ Robert Rawlins: The Real Dixieland Book Songbook: C Instruments . Hal Leonard Corp., 2011
  8. ↑ Album Live Chur 1981 Feat. Trummy Young
  9. ↑ Information on jazz standards