“The Shadow of Your Smile” | Stories of Standards

“The Shadow of Your Smile” – composed by Johnny Mandel with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster -  debuted in the 1965 drama film, “The Sandpiper”, where the song and variations thereof served as the soundtrack.

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This tune was introduced during the height of the Bossa Nova wave of the mid-1960s, a time which popularized Brazilian musical influence. “The Shadow of Your Smile” subsequently became one of the most frequently recorded songs of the decade.

Tony Bennett, Astrud Gilberto, Wes Montgomery, Gerry Mulligan, and Sarah Vaughan released performances during the ’60s, while Tito Puente and Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen covered the tune in the 1990s. Haunting lyrics and evocative chord progressions proved especially well-suited to Astrud Gilberto’s recording.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clokKSK_0AQ

Honors for “The Shadow of Your Smile”  include Mandel’s Grammy for Best Original Score and an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song. A Golden Laurel for the Mandel and Webster team was also awarded.

Mandel (1925 – present) started piano studies at the age of five, after his parents realized he had perfect pitch.

Mandel studied at the Manhattan School of Music and Juilliard and played trumpet, trombone, and bass trumpet in a number of bands before going on to compose, conduct, and arrange music for numerous sound tracks, starting with the 1958 film “I Want to Live.”

Mandel’s best-known songs include “Suicide is Painless” for the M*A*S*H movie and TV series. His accolades include five Grammies, ASCAP’s Henry Mancini Award in 1997, and the 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters award.

Webster (1907 – 1984) focused on lyrics after graduating from college and stints in the Navy and as a dance instructor.

His first success in this field was “Masquerade,” written in 1932 with John Jacob Loeb and popularized by Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra.

While Webster’s work in Hollywood (starting in 1934) was met with success – he received Grammys for “Secret Love” from “Calamity Jane” (1953) and “Love is a Many Splendored Thing,” the title song of a 1955 film – he did especially well with independent tunes such as “I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good,” “Baltimore Oriole,” and “Black Coffee.”

Other Webster hits include “Green Leaves of Summer” for “The Alamo” and “Somewhere My Love” for Doctor Zhivago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uUTWLNBl2k

Sources: jazzstandards.com, imdb.com, jazzbiographies.com, arts.gov