Smile
A summer musical makeover
Hello!
Swiss summer is in full swing.
The streets and supermarkets are (almost!) blissfully empty because everyone is somewhere else for a week or two, the water in the lake is a warm 23 degrees and rising, and when the sun shines the days are just perfect.
(And if you’d told me when I still lived in Australia that Switzerland could be so beautiful in the summer I would have thought you were crazy: but what about all that snow??)
So, what with all the swimming and wandering through empty supermarkets, for the next couple of weeks I’m going to take a little break from more intensive researching and writing, and instead showcase songs I love and have reimagined for myself.
This week it’s the song Smile, made famous by Nat King Cole in 1954, and sung by many people since then.
I certainly don’t think that a policy of ‘grin and bear it’ is the best way to handle darker days, but the sentiment behind this song is much more one of hope than forced cheer, don’t you think?
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 see the sun come shining through for you
The melody was actually written by Charlie Chaplin for his 1936 film Modern Times, and lyrics were added in 1954 by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons.
But the story of this song doesn’t even start with Chaplin’s melody. Instead, it goes much further back.
Charlie Chaplin was a huge music lover, composing lots of music for film as well as more than two dozen songs1. He wrote the melody for what eventually became Smile after being inspired by a melody from the opera Tosca, written by the Italian composer Giacono Puccini in 1899.
This, folks, is an excellent example of borrowing at its finest, in which a musician is inspired by an already existing piece of music (and for more go to The Borrowers).
I’ve tried to put my own spin on it, although without changing things too much, because it’s already so simple and lovely and a joy to sing just as it is.
Let me know if you enjoyed this post! And let me know if there's anything you're curious about or would like me to explore further. You can comment on this post or send me a message at katepainediscoveringmusic@substack.com ❤️
https://www.classical-music.com/features/composers/charlie-chaplin-music