In search of Michael's Smile

It was Jermaine Jackson who sparked the public’s interest in the song. Jermaine was asked during one television interview about his just departed brother’s favorite song. No, he did not name any of the songs Michael popularized solo or with the Jackson 5. Instead he answered Smile and sang a few lines.

A few days later, he was at the Staples Center at the Memorial Service for Michael. Jermaine was wearing a sequined glove, because Michael did that, a gold necktie and a red rose on his lapel because red and gold were Michael’s favorite colors and he sang a very emotional Smile, a cappella because it was Michael’s favorite song.

Jermaine’s performance has since been viewed millions of times on TV and on the Net worldwide. He has also since sung Smile on several occasions, most of them during tributes to Michael where the organizers would almost always ask him to sing Smile.

If Jermaine were to record Smile today, I am sure it will be a big, big hit. Not just because of the Michael connection but because it is beautiful, timeless and Jermaine, in his own right, has the voice and the ability to convey the depth of emotion it requires. Remember, next to Michael, Jermaine is the best singer among the Jackson brothers.

Michael also has his own version of Smile, which, unfortunately was never released as a single. That is why I got a lot of calls from people wondering where Michael’s Smile was. They had checked their compilations The Essential Michael Jackson and Michael Jackson Number Ones CDs and found to their dismay that both do not include Smile.

Neither do the iconic albums, Thriller, Off The Wall, Bad and Dangerous, nor any of the LPs from the Motown Years. So where indeed is Michael’s Smile? Like somebody endowed with ESP, Ciso Chan sent me a CD with a note, “This includes Smile, Michael’s favorite song.” And it does! Smile is the last cut in the second CD of the two-disc set HISTORY, Past, Present And Future Book 1, which come to think of it, will now never have a Book 2.

HISTORY, which has liner notes by Jackie Onassis and Elizabeth Taylor, is a sort of greatest hits collection. As the title says, it has the Past in Billie Jean and Man In The Mirror; the Present in new hits like Scream, the duet with sister Janet and Childhood, the theme from the movie Free Willy 2. I like to think that it was Smile, which ends the album on a happy note, that Michael had planned for his future.

Michael’s Smile is gorgeous and it was produced by David Foster of Michael Bublé, Josh Groban, Celine Dion and Charice fame. The choice shows how savvy Michael was about recording. He knew that he needed something that would make his Smile different from the other versions and Foster was the man for the job.

Unexpectedly, Smile has Michael in a jaunty, wistful mood, humming, whistling and playing around with the song, at times accompanied only by Foster on the piano. The effect is inspiring and shows how a slight twist in the phrasing can turn a sad song into a message of joy. And again, I thought, here is an artist at his peak and Michael at that point, as a singer was superb.

Smile was composed by the great Charlie Chaplin for his 1936 movie Modern Times. Chaplin was not only a comedian or actor, he was the compleat filmmaker who wrote scripts, edited the shots plus a lot of other things for his films. Among these was composing the music and one of his melodies became Smile.

The song was fitted with lyrics by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons in 1954 and recorded by Nat King Cole. A lot of artists have since then recorded their own version of Smile, among them Tony Bennett, Petula Clark, the Lettermen, Diana Ross, Eric Clapton, Westlife and others. Barbra Streisand’s is particularly beautiful and Robert Downey Jr.’s memorable.

Downey, now better known as the Iron Man, gave a moving performance as Chaplin in the great comedian’s film bio. Of course, there was a lot of Smile in the soundtrack, sad or happy, it always sounded beautiful.