The Platters “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” / “No Matter What You Are”

The B-Side being a classic Platters vocal performance—a song by Buck Ram—you could drop that in a period movie about the Fifties pretty much anywhere and it would fit. People driving, on a date, eating ice cream, playing baseball, at work. “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”—covered by like a million recording artists—is a song everyone knows, even if they don’t know that they know it—in which case it could be a bit unsettling—or merely perceived as corny. And it is a corny song, intensely romantic and highly sentimental, and it is old. First of all, this classic recording of it (the song’s biggest hit version) by The Platters, is already old, from 1958—The Platters having formed in the early Fifties—I guess being part of what was and would be rock’n’roll—and they’re still going (many different members over the years, of course!) The song, though, goes even further back—1933! It was written by Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach for the Broadway musical, Roberta. I’m sure I first heard The Platters version on the radio, in the kitchen, or somewhere, maybe the car. Another version of the song then made an impression on me in the 1935 film, Roberta (based on the show)—here sung by Irene Dunne—I like that movie a lot—though I didn’t see it until maybe 10 years ago. The song made an even bigger impression on me when I first heard the cover version by Thelonious Monk—with maybe a sextet (he also recorded a not-quite-as-odd solo version) which was more or less the first time I’d ever heard Thelonious Monk—and the song is just transformed into something indescribable (except to say, a Monk recording)—that one really blew my mind, and continues to! Then I noticed that the song was featured in the novel Laura (1943) (by Vera Caspary—on which the 1944 movie, Laura, was based—where the song was changed to “Laura”). So, in my novel, Black Iris (2021) which is inspired by the movie Laura, but informed by the novel, I really go to town with the versions of “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.” And then, one final obsession, in the Fassbinder movie, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972), there’s a scene featuring The Platters version, where she (Petra) puts the record on a turntable, and the whole record plays. It’s a great scene. But that whole movie is bizarre—unique and unforgettable—one of my favorites.

10.11.24