"A Certain Smile" is a 1958 song composed by Sammy Fain with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster for the film of the same name. It is one of many songs the duo created for films of the period, the most notable being "Secret Love" and "Love Is A Many Splendored Thing" (both won the Academy Award for best song in their year), "April Love," "Tender Is The Night," and "A Very Precious Love."

"A Certain Smile" has a standard ABAC structure. Of interest is its use at the beginning of the B section of the vii minor (rather than half-diminished) leading to the ii of the tonic, resembling the B section of "What A Difference A Day Made" (they are both in the same default key of F major and the E minor chord stands out in both songs).

The song was a big hit for Johnny Mathis, who appeared as a singer in the film. His performance, as well as many others, can be found on Youtube. I suggest you listen to Gaynor Ellen performance at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSkdYais6Kg. There is a performance by Astrud Gilberto and Walter Wanderley that unfortunately reveals her vocal limitations and an instrumental by Beegie Adair that doesn't take advantage of her improvisational abilities; she is a wonderful jazz pianist. Finally, there is a performance by Englebert Humperdink that is a bit over the top.

Sammy Fain was a composer of many great and popular songs, with nine pages of titles at the Songwriters Hall of Fame web site (http://songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C50). His hits include "Dear Hearts and Gentle People," "I'll Be Seeing You," "That Old Feeling," "Alice In Wonderland," and "The Second Star to the Right." He was also a well-known singer in the 1920s and '30s. Check out his performance of his own song "You Brought A New Kind of Love" from 1930 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iMc2BgFcu4.

There are at least two chord charts for "A Certain Smile" that have been previously posted. While I mean no disrespect to whoever created them, they both have strange chord changes and don't work well as backings for improvisation. Thus, I'm submitting this chart for this song. It works well with the Ballad Swing style at 100 bpm.

A Certain Smile (K rev) - Fain-Webster