"Smile" is a single by guitarist and vocalist

David Gilmour David Jon Gilmour ( ; born 6 March 1946) is an English guitarist, singer and songwriter who is a member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined in 1967, shortly before the departure of the founder member Syd Barrett. By the early 1980s, Pink F ...

, released on 13 June 2006. The song was on the UK charts for 1 week and peaked at 72.

Live

The song was first performed at Gilmour's 2001 and 2002 live shows (and also on the accompanying DVD) where Gilmour introduced it as: "''This is a new one so if you are bootlegging, start your machines now.''" It was eventually recorded at his houseboat studio, the Astoria, for the 2006 album ''

On an Island ''On an Island'' is the third solo studio album by Pink Floyd member David Gilmour. It was released in the UK on 6 March 2006, Gilmour's 60th birthday, and in the United States the following day. It was his first solo album in 22 years s ...

''. The song is in 3/4 time. During the three nights at the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...

during his On an Island Tour in 2006, empty CD wallets bearing the Smile single cover, and a CD-sticker were left on seats of audience members who would discover them on arrival, each one bearing a unique number. The idea was to download the single from

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

, burn it to a

CD-R CD-R (Compact disc-recordable) is a digital media, digital optical disc data storage device, storage format. A CD-R disc is a compact disc that can only be Write once read many, written once and read arbitrarily many times. CD-R discs (CD-Rs) ...

, place the CD-shaped sticker onto the burnt CD and keep it in the wallet. "Island Jam" was initially available via Gilmour's website before being made more widely available. An unmastered form of "Smile" can be heard briefly on the

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and ...

show ''

Three Men in a Boat ''Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)'',The Penguin edition punctuates the title differently: ''Three Men in a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog!'' published in 1889, is a humorous novel by English writer Jerome K. Jerome describing ...

'' which retraced a trip on the River Thames, and visited the houseboat.

Track list

#"Smile" (David Gilmour/

Polly Samson Polly Samson (born 29 April 1962) is an English novelist, lyricist and journalist. She is married to the musician David Gilmour and has written lyrics for many of his songs, including albums with his band Pink Floyd. Life and career Samson's f ...

) – 4:03 #"Island Jam" (Gilmour) - 6:33

Personnel

"Smile" *David Gilmour -

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

s, vocals,

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos that ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

* Willie Wilson -

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

Zbigniew Preisner Zbigniew Preisner (; born 20 May 1955 as Zbigniew Antoni Kowalski) is a Polish film score composer, best known for his work with film director Krzysztof Kieślowski. He is the recipient of the Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis as we ...

- orchestration "Island Jam" *David Gilmour - guitar *

Guy Pratt Guy Adam Pratt (born 3 January 1962) is a British bassist. He has worked with artists including Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, Gary Moore, Madonna, Peter Cetera, Michael Jackson, the Smiths, Robert Palmer (singer), Robert Palmer, Echo & the Bunnymen, T ...

- bass guitar * Ged Lynch - drums *Paul "Wix" Wickens - Hammond organ

References

2006 singles David Gilmour songs Songs written by David Gilmour Song recordings produced by David Gilmour Song recordings produced by Chris Thomas (record producer) {{2000s-UK-single-stub