Smoke Gets in Your Eyes is a popular ballad with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Otto Harbach, written for the 1933 Broadway musical comedy Roberta, based on Alice Duer Miller's novel Gowns by Roberta, where Tamara Drasin sang it. Kern had earlier composed the tune for a tap dance in the 1927 musical Show Boat, but it was not adopted, and in 1932 it was tried as a march for a radio series theme. The first recording, by Gertrude Niesen with the orchestra of Ray Sinatra, was made on 13 October 1933 for RCA Victor.
Paul Whiteman's 1933-34 recording, with a vocal by Bob Lawrence, was a chart hit and topped the charts in 1934. Irene Dunne sang it in the 1935 film Roberta and Kathryn Grayson in the 1952 remake Lovely to Look At. The Platters' 1958 version was number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 and on the UK chart, and is in the Grammy Hall of Fame. Other notable versions include those by Nat King Cole, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Eartha Kitt, Bryan Ferry and Barbra Streisand.
