A Certain Smile is a 1958 pop ballad written by Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster for the Twentieth Century-Fox film A Certain Smile. The original on screen performer is Johnny Mathis, who recorded the song with Ray Ellis and His Orchestra on May 12, 1958 and released it as a single on June 2, 1958 from the album More Johnny's Greatest Hits (B-side Let It Rain). The tune belongs to the pop genre and runs about 2 minutes 47 seconds on the single. It reached the US charts, peaking at #19 on the Billboard Top 100, #14 on Most Played by Jockeys, and #21 on Best Sellers in Stores, and it spent 16 weeks on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at #4. The songwriters were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1959. The lyrics describe a certain smile that can lead a heart astray to a fleeting romance, with a bittersweet memory that haunts the heart at night. In 2011 a expanded soundtrack release included the film version as sung in the movie and a version without the opening verse.
