The Smile Has Left Your Eyes
by Asia

Album: Alpha (1983)
Charted: 81 34
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • John Wetton wrote this about his bandmate Geoff Downes. In a 1983 magazine interview, Wetton said: "He was going through a complete emotional turmoil over a girl about a year and a half ago, and I identified so strongly that I went home and wrote the song in five minutes. Boom! Sat right down at the piano and there it was. If anything's straight from the heart, that song is."
  • Asia played this (along with "Midnight Sun") on their first tour in 1982 before the Alpha album was released.
  • The B-side of the single was "Lying To Yourself," which did not appear on the Alpha album and was guitarist Steve Howe's only writing contribution to the album. This track wasn't released on CD until the 2000 compilation The Very Best of Asia: Heat of the Moment 1982-90. >>>
    Suggestion credit:
    Steve - Torrance, CA, for all above

Comments: 4

  • Dennis from New JerseyThis album may have sold poorly, but the video for this song is outstanding, and the very last 2 seconds of the video send a chill down my spine every time!
  • Honcho from VaSam Fields "the album did so poorly John Wetton took offense and bit the hand that feeds"-- how can an album include a track blaming another person for selling poorly, John Wetton could see into the future? That's utter gibberish. Alpha went platinum in the U.S., by the way.
  • Sam FieldsThis was the album that sank Asia's lively hood. Alpha from Asia sold very poorly in 1983. Even with Mike Stone being Producer over the sessions. Geffen Records played a HUGE PART into this album. So much so that every track sounded like a filler and no single anywhere on the record. John Wetton was pushed into writing a song or theme/idea that CEO David Geffen and others thought they could push that would exemplify a more progressive lifestyle that nobody would ever thought about it was being brought into the open. But "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes" is actually a song about David Geffen and his lifestyle and because the album did so poorly John Wetton took offense and bit the hand that feeds. John Wetton unfortunately didn't know how to handle this situation and that's why Geffen Records and top executives at the label fired him and Asia never got support or recognition and radio airplay after this situation. Listen to the lyrics to The Smile Has Left Your Eyes...there's something wrong with those lyrics it's not about any band member or boy meets girl relationship....
  • Danielle from Palm Coast, Flawww... so sad i saw the music video and some what related to it when my parents got a divorce.for those of you how do not know the story the mother kept her daughter from seeing her father through their divorce. and the little girl committed suicided. it shows how powerful a divorce is the part that said the smile has left your eyes is referring to her daughter. don t know what to call my own refers to how his daughter is forbidden to see him and he is questions if she is really hir daughter and his own but
    I never thought I'd see you
    Standing there with him
    So don't come crawling
    Back to me
    refers to the wife and he sees her with another man and it bounces back and forth through out the song to the daughters sadness to the fathers sadness. and to partly to the wife.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Randy Houser

Randy HouserSongwriter Interviews

The "How Country Feels" singer talks Skynyrd and songwriting.

Gilby Clarke

Gilby ClarkeSongwriter Interviews

The Guns N' Roses rhythm guitarist in the early '90s, Gilby talks about the band's implosion and the side projects it spawned.

Subversive Songs Used To Sell

Subversive Songs Used To SellSong Writing

Songs about drugs, revolution and greed that have been used in commercials for sneakers, jeans, fast food, cruises and cars.

Tom Bailey of Thompson Twins

Tom Bailey of Thompson TwinsSongwriter Interviews

Tom stopped performing Thompson Twins songs in 1987, in part because of their personal nature: "Hold Me Now" came after an argument with his bandmate/girlfriend Alannah Currie.

Krishna Das

Krishna DasSongwriter Interviews

The top chant artist in the Western world, Krishna Das talks about how these Hindu mantras compare to Christian worship songs.

What Musicians Are Related to Other Musicians?

What Musicians Are Related to Other Musicians?Song Writing

A big list of musical marriages and family relations ranging from the simple to the truly dysfunctional.