Whispering Jack Smith sings Baby Face (song by Benny Davis and Harry Akst) on Victor 20229, recorded on September 22, 1926, in New York City
Baby cheeks and turned up nose and curly hair--
Im raving bout my baby now!
Pretty little dimples here and dimples there--
Dont want to live without her!
I love her goodness knows!
I wrote a song about her, and heres the way it goes
Baby Face, youve got the cutest little baby face--
Theres not another one could take your place!
Baby face,
My poor heart is jumping--you sure have started something!
Baby Face, Im up in heaven when Im in your fond embrace.
I didnt need a shove because I just fell in love
With your pretty baby face.
When you were a baby--not so long ago--
You must have been the cutest thing
I can picture you at every baby show
Just winning every ribbon with your sweet baby way
Say, honest I aint fibbing--youd win em all today
Born with the name Jacob Schmidt (probably on May 30, 1896), the singer made a legal change to Jack Smith around the time anti-German sentiment ran high.
Radio was a source of regular work for Jack Smith for decades. He started on radio as a piano accompanist, but at a WMCA studio, his partner (a singer) failed to appear. Smiths solo career was launched on that day!
Smith was also a Tin Pan Alley song plugger, giving private performances of new songs to vocalists who might want to adopt those songs (the way he entered show business after he left the military?). He was a song plugger for the Irving Berlin Music Company, and he recorded several Berlin songs--he was in his comfort zone.
His discs were among the earliest made with an electric recording process, a microphone used. His first recording session was on August 28, 1925, but Victor issued nothing from this test date or trial session. Cecilia was soon afterwards cut. Recorded on September 21, 1925, this A side of his first disc was among his biggest hits.
Another song closely associated with Smith is Gimmie a Little Kiss, Will Ya? His delivery is unique--perfect for the song. He recorded many songs that would become standards.
Whispering Jack Smiths style was fresh to the industry in the mid-1920s although Columbia had the services of Art Gillham, the Whispering Pianist. These two artists--friendly rivals--would cover some of the same songs. Art Gillham later in life recalled that Jack Smith had the greater talent or at least made better records. Smith had the more flexible voice, able to cover a wider range of material. Gillhams range was very limited.
Jack Smith was exclusive to the Victor Talking Machine Company (and Englands HMV) from 1925 to 1930. Hal Kemps older brother, T. D. Kemp, Jr., became Jack Smiths business manager in 1926, arranging for Smith to perform in London that year and later.
Smith made wonderful recordings abroad in 1928--in England and in Berlin, Germany.
Kemp in retirement recalled that Smiths alcoholism destroyed the crooners career by 1931. One sign of a decline in the career is that by 1931 Smith cut titles for Plaza, a company that issued budget labels. Jack Smith had fallen from the prestigious Victor label, ending up on the dime-store Banner label. He recorded for Decca in 1940 in a failed comeback attempt.
He died in New York City on May 13, 1950, out of the limelight for two decades though he continued to work in radio, even hosting a radio show in the mid-1930s. He continued to play in nightclubs (or roadside restaurants, such as the Woodlawn in Madison, Connecticut), not presented as any kind of star or legend--he sang and played piano to audiences indifferent to or unaware of his earlier fame.
Obituaries published in 1950 state that Smith, survived by wife Marie, is buried next to his mother Anna Schmidt at St. Raymonds Cemetery in the Bronx in an unmarked grave.
His heyday was the mid- and late-1920s. Among the symbols and icons of the Roaring 20s--radio, flappers, Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer, bootleggers, Gatsby, Lindbergh--I include The Whispering Baritone.
