Smile (band)

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Smile were a London-based rock band best known as the predecessor to renowned rock band Queen. The band was formed in 1968 by Brian May, who was to become Queen's guitarist. The group included Tim Staffell as singer and bassist, and, later, drummer Roger Taylor, who also went on to play for Queen. The group disbanded in 1970.

[edit] History

In 1968, guitarist Brian May, a student at London's Imperial College, and bassist Tim Staffell formed a group when May placed an advertisement on the college notice board for a "Ginger Baker type" drummer, and a young medical student named Roger Taylor auditioned and got the job. Smile were signed to Mercury Records in 1969, and had their first experience of a recording studio in Trident Studios that year. Staffell was attending Ealing Art College with Freddie Bulsara (later known as Freddie Mercury), and introduced him to the band. Bulsara soon became a keen fan.

The group's biggest public performance was on February 27, 1969 at the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and Her Child. Held at the Royal Albert Hall, May, Taylor and Staffell performed as a trio on guitar, drums and bass respectively. Keyboardist Chris Smith had been fired the day before, according to Staffell. (According to Smith, he was only briefly in the band and left of his own accord because he was interested in different styles).^[1]

In March 1969, the band played at a venue known as PJ's, using claims to have previously been played on radio station BBC Radio 1 to secure an audience. It seems likely that the claims were fictitious, however.^[1][2] Shortly after they were given a one-off recording deal by Mercury Records to record three tracks, "Earth" (Staffell), "Step On Me" (May), and "Doin' All Right" (May/Staffell). These were recorded in June 1969 at Trident Studios in Soho. Ultimately this US promotional recording was never published commercially.

However, in September of the same year, Mercury Records commissioned them to record three more songs: "April Lady" (Stanley Lucas), "Blag", a Taylor instrumental, and "Polar Bear", a "gentle song about a polar bear"^[2] written and led by May, at De Lane Lea Studios. Again, the record was not released at the time.

When Staffell left Smile in 1970 to join another band, Humpy Bong, Smile effectively disbanded.^[3] Bulsara persuaded May and Taylor to continue, changing the band's name from "Smile" to "Queen" in the process.^[3] The band had a number of bass players during this period, namely Mike Grose, Barry Mitchell and Doug Bogie, who did not fit with the band's chemistry. It was not until February 1971 that they settled on John Deacon and began to rehearse for the first album.^[4] This definitively created the Queen lineup which lasted until Mercury's death in 1991.

For their debut album, Queen recorded "Doing All Right". According to the book "Queen: The Early Years", Staffell has been well compensated through royalties from the sale of the album, given his co-songwriting credit for the song with Brian May. Queen also recorded the song for their first BBC recording session with John Peel. That session, along with their third session, have been released in the UK as At the Beeb (Band Of Joy Records) in 1989, and in the U.S. as Queen At The BBC (Hollywood Records) in 1995. Also in 1995, Queen issued their Let Me Live singles, one of which features three of the first session BBC recordings, including "Doing Alright".

Smile would reunite for several songs on 22 December 1992. Taylor's band The Cross were headliners and he brought May and Staffell on to play "Earth" and "If I Were a Carpenter".^[5] May also performed several other songs that night.

[edit] Discography

Two legitimate releases of the six Smile tracks have since been issued:

Gettin' Smile (LP) from Japan, released September 23, 1982, on Mercury Records. The sleeve contains notoriously inaccurate lyrics and songwriting credits for the songs. This release was used for all subsequent bootlegs which contain the songs.

Ghost of a Smile (CD) from Holland, released in 1997, on Pseudonym Records. The CD booklet is comprehensive and features new liner notes by Tim Staffell. All the tracks were newly remastered. The album also features two versions of the Eddie Howell/Freddie Mercury collaboration "The Man From Manhattan" (no relation to Smile, except that Brian May plays guitar on it).

There is a bootleg album of their early tracks circa the Smile era titled Pre-Ordained. Most of them also appeared on the 1995 Italian bootleg Queen in Nuce.

[edit] Songs

The following songs have been confirmed by the members of the band as being part of their repertoire, either live or in their short-lived studio time.

• "Earth" (Staffell)
• "Step On Me" (Staffell/May) originally from May and Staffell's band 1984.
• "Doin' Alright" (Staffell/May)
• "Blag" (Taylor)
• "Polar Bear" (May)
• "Silver Salmon" (Staffell)
• "See What A Fool I've Been" (May, based on the song "That's How I Feel" by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee)
• "If I Were a Carpenter" (Tim Hardin) a cover regularly featuring in their live set.
• "April Lady" (Lucas) a song presented to the band by Mercury Records during their second studio session.

[edit] Smile songs recorded by other artists

• "Step On Me": Two versions were recorded by the pre-Smile band, 1984, as part of a demo tape made at ITV Studios, London, England, March 31, 1967.
• "Earth": Tim joined the band Morgan and contributed the song to their first album Nova Solis in 1972.
• "Doing All Right": recorded by Queen for their debut album Queen (1973). This version also appears on the US-only 7" single for their song "Liar" on Elektra Records (1974).
• "Polar Bear": recorded as a demo, yet unreleased, by Queen during their debut album sessions.
• "Silver Salmon": recorded as a demo, yet unreleased, by Queen during their debut album sessions.
• "Doin' Alright": again recorded by Queen (with a slight name change to the song) for their first BBC session on February 5, 1973. This version appears on Queen at the Beeb (1989) in the UK, and Queen At The BBC (1995) in the US, as well as on the CDQUEEN24 single "Let Me Live" as a B-side.
• "See What A Fool I've Been": recorded in August of 1973, during Queen's second album sessions (Queen II). It did not appear on the album, but was released as the B-side to the album's single "The Seven Seas of Rhye" (1974). This version later appeared on the Queen boxed set The Complete Works bonus LP Complete Vision. Hollywood Records re-issued Queen II in the US in 1991, with this song as a bonus track. The UK and Japanese CD3 singles (1987 and 1990 respectively) include the song again as the B-side for "The Seven Seas of Rhye".
• "See What A Fool I've Been": again recorded by Queen, now as part of their fourth BBC session with John Peel.
• "Blag": Though never recorded again as such, the featured solo evolved (and continues to evolve) through Brian May's career both with Queen and as a solo artist. Recorded versions of the solo include: "Son And Daughter" (third Queen BBC session, 1974, released on the aforementioned BBC album [see above]), "Brighton Rock" (from Queen's third album Sheer Heart Attack in 1974), "Brighton Rock" (from Queen's live album Live Killers in 1979), as "Guitar Solo" (from Queen on Fire - Live at the Bowl recorded 1982), "Brighton Rock Solo" (recorded in 1986, on Live At Wembley '86, released 1992), as "Guitar Extravagance" (from The Brian May Band live album Live at the Brixton Academy in 1993), and recently again as "Guitar Solo" (on the Queen + Paul Rodgers live album Return of the Champions in 2005).
• "Polar Bear": recorded by Valensia for his album Queen Tribute in 2003.
• "Earth": recorded by Tim Staffell for his solo album aMIGO. This version features Brian May on guitar and vocals, and Morgan Fisher (formerly of Morgan) on keyboards. Recorded in 2003.
• "Doin' Alright": recorded by Tim Staffell for his solo album aMIGO. This version features Brian May on guitar and vocals.
• "April Lady": recorded by Southern Comfort (the band remaining after Iain Matthews left Matthews Southern Comfort) on their 'Frog City' album (Harvest SHSP 4012)of 1971 (not on CD as far as I'm aware). On the record label this song is credited to Carl Barnwell but this maybe a mistake. Fritz Freyer, who produced the Smile version, had connections with Matthews Southern Comfort, so perhaps that is how they came by it?

[edit] References

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A3507879

1. ^ ^{a b} "Smit's Smile". Originally from Queenfans.com. (Currently offline, retrieved through web archive on 2007-11-08.)
2. ^ ^{a b} Pre-Queen - Smile!
3. ^ ^{a b} Queen Biography 1970, Queen Zone, <http://queenzone.com/queenzone/bio_view.aspx?q=2> 
4. ^ Queen Biography 1971, Queen Zone, <http://queenzone.com/queenzone/bio_view.aspx?q=3> 
5. ^ http://www.queenzone.com/queenzone/article_show.aspx?Q=11