Smile were a London-based rock band best known as the predecessor to renowned rock band Queen. Formed by Queen's future guitarist Brian May in 1968, and disbanding in 1970, it included Tim Staffell as singer and bassist. It later included drummer Roger Taylor, who also went on to play for Queen. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem God Save the King (Queen) England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto) Government Constitutional monarchy  -  Queen Queen Elizabeth II  -  Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification  -  by Athelstan 967  Area... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Mercury Records was a record label founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1945 by Irving Green, Berle Adams and Arthur Talmadge. ... Brian Harold May, CBE, BSc, DSc, ARCS, FRAS, (born July 19, 1947) is a virtuoso[1][2][3][4] guitarist best known as the lead guitarist and backing, sometimes lead, vocalist for the English rock band Queen. ... Tim Staffell (b. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Queen are an English rock band, formed in 1970 in London by Brian May, Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor, with John Deacon joining the following year. ... Brian Harold May, CBE, BSc, DSc, ARCS, FRAS, (born July 19, 1947) is a virtuoso[1][2][3][4] guitarist best known as the lead guitarist and backing, sometimes lead, vocalist for the English rock band Queen. ... Tim Staffell (b. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

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. They called the group Smile. 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 very definition of a guitarist is cody allen and taylor hines because of there un ending guitar skills and awsomnes. ... Royal School of Mines Entrance Imperial College London is a college of the University of London which focuses on science and technology, and is located in South Kensington in London. ... A bassist is a musician who plays a double bass or electric bass (also referred to as bass guitar). ... Peter Edward Ginger Baker (born August 19, 1939, Lewisham, South London) is an English drummer and singer who gained fame as a member of the Graham Bond Organisation (GBO) and Cream from 1966 until 1968. ... Mercury Records was a record label founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1945 by Irving Green, Berle Adams and Arthur Talmadge. ... Ealing Art College is a school of higher educational in St. ...

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 Chris, he was only briefly in the band and left of his own accord due to wanting to try different styles).^[1] February 27 is the 58th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Stargate SG-1 episode, see 1969 (Stargate SG-1). ... The Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences is an arts venue dedicated to Queen Victorias husband and consort, Prince Albert. ...

In March 1969, the band played at a venue known as PJ's, using claims to have previously been played on radio station Radio 1 to secure an audience. It seems likely that the claims were fictitious, however.^[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". These were recorded in June 1969 at Trident Studios in Soho. Ultimately this US promotional recording was never published commercially. Mercury Records was a record label founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1945 by Irving Green, Berle Adams and Arthur Talmadge. ...

However, in September of the same year, Mercury 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"^[3] written and led by May, at De Lane Lea. Again, the record was not released at the time.

When Staffell left Smile in 1970 to join another band, Humpy Bong Smile effectively disbanded.^[4] Bulsara persuaded May and Taylor to continue, changing the band's name from "Smile" to "Queen" in the process.^[4] The band had a number of bass players during this period who did not fit with the band's chemistry. It is proposed that this article be deleted, because of the following concern: NN band with very loose connection to Queen If you can address this concern by improving, copyediting, sourcing, renaming or merging the page, please edit this page and do so. ... A bassist is a musician who plays a double bass or electric bass (also referred to as bass guitar). ...

After the bass players Grose, Barry Mitchell and Doug Bogie proved unsuitable, Queen engaged the fourth band member, John Deacon in 1971. This definitively created the Queen lineup which lasted until Mercury's death in 1991. For the medieval chroniclers named John, deacon of. ...

For their debut album, Queen recorded "Doing All Right". According to the book "Queen: The Early Years", Tim Staffell has been well compensated through royalties (given his co-songwriting credit for the song with Brian May) from the sale of the album.

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 Queen at the Beeb (Band Of Joy Records) in 1989, and in the US as Queen At The BBC (Hollywood Records) in 1996.

Later in 1995, Queen issued their Let Me Live singles, one of which features three of the first session BBC recordings, including "Doing Alright". Let Me Live is a song by Queen, from the album Made In Heaven. ...

There is a bootleg album of their early tracks circa the Smile era titled Pre-Ordained. An assortment of bootleg recordings A bootleg recording (or simply bootleg or boot) is an audio and/or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist, or under other legal authority. ... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ...

It was not until February 1971 that they settled on John Deacon and began to rehearse for the first album.^[5]

Smile would reunite for several songs on December 22, 1992. Taylor's band The Cross were headliners and he brought May and Staffell on to play "Earth" and "If I Were a Carpenter".^[6] May also performed several other songs that night. December 22 is the 356th day of the year (357th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... Roger Taylor (drummer from Queen) formed this rockband in 1987 which folded in july 1993. ...

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 these songs. September 23 is the 266th day of the year (267th in leap years). ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

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 on the Eddie Howell/Freddie Mercury collaboration "The Man From Manhattan" (no relation to Smile, except that Brian May plays guitar on it). Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara; 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a British rock musician and songwriter, best known as the lead singer of the rock band Queen and often heralded as the best rock singer of all time. ...

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 (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.

Sonny Terry performing live at Nambassa festival 1981. ... Walter Brownie McGhee (November 30, 1915 - February 16, 1996) was a folk-blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaborations with the harmonica player Sonny Terry. ...

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 would later appear on the Queen boxed set The Complete Works' bonus LP Complete Vision. Hollywood Records would re-issue 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, aired in 1974, and also released as the B-side to the 'Seven seas of Rhye' single.

• 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.

March 31 is the 90th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (91st in leap years), with 275 days remaining. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... Morgan was a band featuring Tim Staffell (from Smile): Vocals, Libretti, Acoustic Guitar, and from The Love Affair: Bob Sapsed: Fretless Bass, Maurice Bacon: Drums & Percussion and Morgan Fisher: keyboards L.P.: Nova Solis (RCA Italy LISP 34154, 1972) Single: Joss Bay b/w Drat! (Retread Records, UK) (as The... Nova Solis is Morgans first album, released in 1972. ... Queen are an English rock band, formed in 1970 in London by Brian May, Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor, with John Deacon joining the following year. ... February 5 is the 36th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The Complete Works Following Live Aid, Queen found themselves revitalized and once again a concert force to reckoned with. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Live Killers is a double vinyl and compact disc live album by English rock band Queen released on June 26, 1979. ... Live at Wembley 86 is a double compact disc live album by English rock band Queen. ... Live at the Brixton Academy, released in 1991, was the only live album by US rock band Faith No More. ... The Queen + Paul Rodgers collaboration began in late 2004 when Queen were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame. ... Return of the Champions is a double compact disc live album by British rock band Queen and Paul Rodgers. ... Aldous Byron Valensia Clarkson (Born April 13, 1971) is a Dutch singer. ... Tim Staffell (b. ... British keyboard player/composer Morgan Fisher is most known for being a member of Mott the Hoople in the early 1970s. ... Morgan was a band featuring Tim Staffell (from Smile): Vocals, Libretti, Acoustic Guitar, and from The Love Affair: Bob Sapsed: Fretless Bass, Maurice Bacon: Drums & Percussion and Morgan Fisher: keyboards L.P.: Nova Solis (RCA Italy LISP 34154, 1972) Single: Joss Bay b/w Drat! (Retread Records, UK) (as The...

References

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

Footnotes

1. ^ http://www.queenfans.com/articles/pics/chrissmith.jpg (currently offline)
2. ^ http://www.queenfans.com/articles/prequeen2.shtml
3. ^ http://www.queenfans.com/articles/prequeen2.shtml
4. ^ ^{a b} Queen Biography 1970, Queen Zone 
5. ^ Queen Biography 1971, Queen Zone 
6. ^ http://www.queenzone.com/queenzone/article_show.aspx?Q=11