I'LL NEVER SMILE AGAIN

Canadian Ruth Lowe married Chicago publicist Harold Cohen in 1938. A year later Cohen died following complications developed during surgery. In her grief she wrote the beautiful ballad I'll Never Smile Again. Big band leader Tommy Dorsey put together an arrangement of the piece for a new young crooner named Frank Sinatra. The song stayed number one for 12 weeks in 1940 and immortalized Sinatra. The video below features the original recording's crew with Sinatra and the Pied Pipers. It's a bad recording, but offers a rare look at pop history in the making. (Notice the soon to be star Jo Stafford, uh the woman, singing with the group)