I'll Be All Smiles Tonight: A Song History

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"I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" is a sentimental song of heartbreak: a woman readies herself, flowers and all, for the wedding of the sweetheart who has left her for someone else, determined that no one there will see her grief[1]. Its authorship is unsettled. The Traditional Tune Archive credits words and music to T. B. Ransom (spelled "Ranson" there) and dates them to 1879, without giving a source for either point[2], and the Discography of American Historical Recordings lists Ransom as composer and lyricist of the Carter Family's 1934 disc, citing the record label among its sources[3]. An undated edition published by the National Music Co. of Chicago, now digitized by the University of Wisconsin–Madison Libraries, instead credits the words to M. J. Ludlow and the music to Geo. Powis[4]. No dated early printing that would settle the matter turned up in the sources consulted here, so the question of authorship is best left open.

William Hogarth painting of an elegant wedding ceremony in a church, with guests gathered around the couple

William Hogarth, The Wedding of Stephen Beckingham and Mary Cox, oil on canvas, 1729. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). Shown for its wedding; it has no connection to the song.

Whatever its origin, the song passed into oral tradition. The Traditional Ballad Index cites versions from collections made in the Ozarks, Alabama, Texas and North Carolina, and also in Australia[1]. A notated copy survives in the I. G. Greer Folksong Collection, gathered chiefly in Ashe, Wilkes and Watauga counties, North Carolina[5], and the Max Hunter Folk Song Collection holds a performance by Ollie Gilbert recorded at Mountain View, Arkansas, on 7 October 1969[6]. The Tune Archive also treats it as a waltz and lists it in Ford's Traditional Music in America (1940)[2].

Records followed early in the country-music era. On 24 March 1926, Luther B. Clarke sang it in New York with the Blue Ridge Highballers as "I'll Be All Smiles To-night, Love," issued on Columbia 15069-D[7], and the Ballad Index lists further 78s by Mac & Bob, Bradley Kincaid, the Reed Children and others before 1934[1]. The Carter Family recorded it in Camden, New Jersey, on 8 May 1934 for Bluebird B-5529, with A. P. Carter credited as arranger[3]; the Tune Archive credits that record with popularizing the song and says it has since become a standard of country music[2]. Kitty Wells's version appeared on RCA Victor in 1950[1].

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Sources

  1. Traditional Ballad Index (California State University, Fresno): "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight".
  2. Traditional Tune Archive: "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight".
  3. Discography of American Historical Recordings (UCSB): "Victor matrix BS-83130. I'll be all smiles tonight / Carter Family".
  4. University of Wisconsin–Madison Libraries Digital Collections: "I'll be all smiles tonight" (sheet music, National Music Co.).
  5. Appalachian State University, W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection: "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight, Sheet Music 02" (I. G. Greer Folksong Collection).
  6. Max Hunter Folk Song Collection (Missouri State University): "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight".
  7. Discography of American Historical Recordings (UCSB): "Columbia matrix W141854. I'll be all smiles to-night, love / Luther B. Clarke".