This was written as a riposte when the original lineup of Cockney Rebel walked out on Steve Harley. The song tells the story of the first incarnation of the band.
Jean-Paul Crocker, the electric violinist of Cockney Rebel, along with keyboardist Milton Reame-James and bassist Paul Jeffreys, approached lead singer Steve Harley, saying they wanted to contribute towards the songwriting. However, Harley, who was the sole songwriter of the band, felt it was unjust since he had initially hired them for his own vision and had already explained the arrangement to them. Consequently, Crocker chose to part ways and formed a musical duo with his brother, while the other two joined Be-Bop Deluxe, a band that had previously supported Cockney Rebel on their last tour.
"You could see the friction between the Cockney Rebel guys," Be-Bop Deluxe frontman Bill Nelson recalled to Mojo magazine. "After they left, Milton Reame-James and Paul Jeffreys joined Be-Bop for a bit. There's a line in 'Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me),' 'You spoilt the game. No matter what you say. For only metal, what a bore.' Well, Be-Bop weren't metal but fine - that was Steve's little dig. I met him years later and we laughed about it."
Harley added, "Bill and I did laugh about it later, but that 'metal' reference was to money, to coins. They'd left me in the lurch, those three. It was Judas and the 30 pieces of silver. They had signed a contract with EMI and I had to buy them out."
When he performed the song on
Top Of The Pops, although the instrumental backing was mimed, Harley performed a live vocal and promptly forgot most of the second and third verses.
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Suggestion credit:
Shelley - Stoke-on-Trent, England
The acoustic, flamenco-styled guitar solo was originally a soundcheck warm-up that was captured on tape and later used when it was realized it added to the song.
In
1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh, Steve Harley recalls the end of Cockney Rebel version 1: "We split up because they wanted to to take my leadership away. They wanted to dilute it and Make Me Smile is saying 'Come back one day and I'll laugh.' It was arrogant but I knew they were wrong - they didn't understand the group like I did." In the song Steve accuses them of selling out and sings, "You spoilt the game, no matter what you say, for only metal-what a bore."
Steve adds in 1000 UK #1 Hits: "There are 120 cover versions of Make Me Smile, but only The Wedding Present have done it differently. They did a punk version and made it kick. They understood the venom in the lyrics."
This features in the 1997 film The Full Monty.
This song also featured prominently in the 1998 cult film
Velvet Goldmine, about the rise and fall of Glam (or Glitter) Rock. The film's main character is based on David Bowie's character of Ziggy Stardust. Bowie disapproved of the film and refused to allow his music to be used, so a variety of other Glam and Glam-influenced tracks were used instead.
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Suggestion credit:
Terry - NYC, NY
Harley started writing the song within days of the old Cockney Rebel breaking up. He told Uncut magazine January 2012 the first verse ("You've done it all, you've broken every code/And pulled the rebel to the floor"), "was probably written at four in the morning after a bottle of brandy, feeling sorry for myself."
The song was originally written as a slow blues, but producer
Alan Parsons suggested speeding it up. He recalled to
Uncut: "It was a little dirgy, slower and a little pedestrian, very on the beat. I changed it to a way I thought worked much better with the girls."
The tune was from a song Harley had demoed in Whitechapel in 1972. "The guys who left provided the ammunition for a new lyric," explained Harley to Mojo.
"'Make Me Smile' was a bit ramshackle when Steve brought it in, not an obvious single," guitarist Jim Cregan added. "Alan Parsons suggested upping the tempo and when Duncan Mackay came up with that intro for the clavinet, we knew we were on to something."
Paul Jeffreys and his wife Rachel died in the Lockerbie bombing of 1988. "Although 'Make Me Smile' was about members of the original band deserting me, me and Paul Jeffreys stayed good friends," said Harley. "Paul was a kind, sweet guy, so maybe he was led astray by a stronger personality. I don't know."
