The Platters, “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” | Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶

In the 8^th edition of Throwback Vibez (2023), we recollect and reflect on “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” by The Platters.

The vibes, the vibes, those Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶! Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 is a column that celebrates awesome songs from the past.  The records that grace this column are older, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re ancient – no fossils 🦴! All genres of music are welcome. In the 8^th edition of Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 (2023), we recollect and reflect on 🎵 “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes”, performed by 🎙 The Platters. 

“They asked me how I knew / My true love was true / I of course replied, something here inside / Cannot be denied.” Oh, the nostalgia! Early, renowned R&B/vocal collective 🎙 The Platters landed the biggest hit of their career with 🎵 “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” (💿 Remember When?), which peaked at no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959.  Even though this record was recorded and released more than six decades ago, it remains potent – a once in a lifetime recording. “Smoke” features a gorgeous, truly celestial backdrop.  That backdrop is comprised of strings (including harp), piano, drums – it sounds sophisticated and vintage through and through.  Beyond the refined supporting instrumental, the lead vocals are marvelous by 🎙 Tony Williams.  While Williams is the engine that made this seminal hit by the Platters go, the supporting vocals by the rest of the collective are brilliant too.

“When your heart’s on fire, you must realize

Smoke gets in your eyes.”

“Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” was NOT an original by The Platters despite the fact that the collective made it sound that way – speaks to their tremendous musicianship. The tune is a jazz standard, from the 1933 musical, Roberta, written by 🎼 ✍ Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach in 1933.  While The Platters greatly owe Kern and Harbach for a stellar song, they made that stellar song even bigger.

🎙 The Platters • 💿 Remember When? • 🏷 Mercury • 🗓 1959

 The Platters, “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes”: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 No. 8 (2023) [📷: Brent Faulkner/The Musical Hype; Mercury; John Alan Sperry, PIRO via Pixabay]