When a Lovely Flame Dies

J.D. Souther recorded ‘Smoke Gets In Your Eyes’ for the 1989 Steven Spielberg romantic fantasy Always, which co-stared Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfuss.  JD Souther is best known for penning pop hits for the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, Warren Zevon and others.  Souther didn’t have a lot of hit records, but he did become good friends with Carrie Fisher, and she got him the job for this movie.  This song was written by Otto Harbach lyrics and Jerome Kern music in 1933 for the musical comedy Roberta, starring Bob Hope and it was performed by Tamara Drasin, playing a Russian princess.  The song is a ballad that talks about the experience of falling in love and the way it can cloud one’s judgment and perception, much like how smoke can blur one’s vision.  The lyrics describe how the initial passion and intensity of a new love can sometimes blind a person to reality, leading them to see things through a romanticized lens.  The song captures the bittersweet nature of love, acknowledging that while it can be beautiful and intoxicating, it can also be deceptive and fleeting.  The lyrics convey a sense of longing and vulnerability, as the singer reflects on the pain and heartache that can accompany love.

The Platters recorded this on their 1958 album Best Of The Platters and the single went to #1 in the US and the UK.  In 1934, Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra recorded this song, and it went to #1, making ‘Smoke Gets In Your Eyes’ the only song ever to be Number One in the same week in different quarter-centuries.  The Jerry Garcia Band recorded this for the 1995 Smoke soundtrack and Jerome “Jerry” Garcia was named after the Broadway songwriter Jerome Kern.  A line in this song, “When your heart’s on fire, smoke gets in your eyes,” are supposedly based on a famous Russian proverb, but I was not able to find any more information about that, except this one which may be close.  “One day, a poor villager happens upon a magic talking fish that is ready to grant him a single wish. Overjoyed, the villager weighs his options, “Maybe a castle?  Or even better—a thousand bars of gold?  Why not a ship to sail the world?”  As the villager is about to make his decision, the fish interrupts him to say that there is one important caveat, whatever the villager gets, his neighbor will receive two of the same.  Without skipping a beat, the villager says, “In that case, please poke one of my eyes out.”  In 2013, the 74-year-old Souther was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

They asked me how I knew
My true love was true
I of course replied
Something here inside cannot be denied
They said “someday you’ll find all who love are blind”
When your heart’s on fire,
You must realize, smoke gets in your eyes

So I chaffed them and I gaily laughed
To think they could doubt my love
Yet today my love has flown away,
I am without my love

Now laughing friends deride
Tears I cannot hide
So I smile and say
When a lovely flame dies, smoke gets in your eyes

(Smoke gets in your eyes, smoke gets in your eyes)

Smoke gets in your eyes

Written for Glyn’s Mixed Music Bag #21, May Monthly Challenge Week 21 where we need to find a song by any group or solo singer beginning with the letter I or J.