Home | Songs By Year | Songs from 1984


When the Lady Smiles

Buy When the Lady Smiles now from Amazon

First, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the song. And once you've experienced the song, tell everyone what you thought about it.

Wikipedia article




"'When the Lady Smiles'" is a 1984 song by Dutch band Golden Earring. It was the first single from their album 'N.E.W.S.' (NorthEastWestSouth). Following their United States top 10 hit "Twilight Zone", "When the Lady Smiles" was a chart disappointment in America, only reaching No. 76 on the Billboard Hot 100. However, the song became the band's fifth Hot 100 charter, making Golden Earring the most successful Dutch band on the United States singles chart.

In the Netherlands, "When the Lady Smiles" became Golden Earring's fifth number-one song. The song debuted at No. 9 on the United States Top Rock Tracks chart, but its controversial music video prevented the song from achieving further success in America.

Controversy



The commercial success of "When the Lady Smiles" in the United States was thwarted by the song's controversial music video. Directed by Dick Maas, one scene portrays Golden Earring lead singer Barry Hay attempting to rape a nun on a metro car. Because of the rape scene, the video was banned from MTV.

Dutch actor Huub Stapel has a cameo in the music video as an elevator mechanic, referencing the movie 'De Lift'.

Also appearing in several scenes (metro car, window washer) is Hans Vandenburg, lead singer of Gruppo Sportivo.

In the United States, the song debuted at No. 9 on the Top Rock Tracks chart (now Mainstream Rock Airplay), slipped to No. 11 in its second week and then fell off the chart completely because of the music video ban.

2008 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign



New York senator Hillary Clinton used "When the Lady Smiles" during her campaign for the US presidency of 2008. The decision led to criticism from both American and Dutch figures because of the song's lyrics and graphic controversial video.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivr6CtGuPqU Pauw&Witteman 2008 ] While the chorus contains the lyrics "When the lady smiles, I can't resist her call, as a matter of fact, I don't resist at all," other lines include "It drives me wild, her lips are warm and resourceful" and "My friends tell me, she's the beast inside your paradise."

Golden Earring's manager stated that "Theres been no contact between Clintons team and us" for usage of the song. Her husband Bill Clinton had previously used the band's 1973 hit single "Radar Love" in his 1992 presidential campaign.

However, "When the Lady Smiles" was pulled from Hillary Clinton's campaign after her team discovered the assault scene in the song's music video.

Charts



Weekly charts



Year-end charts



References



Category:1984 singles

Category:Dutch Top 40 number-one singles

Category:Songs written by George Kooymans

Category:Songs written by Barry Hay

Category:1984 songs

Category:Golden Earring songs

Buy When the Lady Smiles now from Amazon

<-- Return to songs from 1984



This work is released under CC-BY-SA. Some or all of this content attributed to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1106738166.