Brian May, Roger Taylor, Tim Staffell.
Band History:
Smile was formed in 1968 and consisted of three members - lead singer and bass player Tim Staffell, guitarist Brian May, and drummer Roger Taylor.
Staffell and May met in 1964 and, together with several mutual friends, formed a band that they would call "1984". 1984, in May's words, was "purely an amateur band, formed at school, although perhaps at the end we once got fifteen quid or something. We never really played anything significant in the way of original material". (Brian May, The Guitar Greats, 1983).
For four years, the band did little in the way of recording, playing cover songs at sporadic gigs while the bandmembers focused on their schooling. May would leave the band in 1968 to focus on his BSc exams and would be accepted to study for a phD in astrophysics at renowned Imperial College.
(A degree that May would finally obtain forty years later.)
Though he was a diligent student, May desperately wanted to continue to play his guitar, so he and Staffell decided later that year to start fresh with a new band. "Smile" would be the chosen name of this new venture, and May would post an advert on the student message board:
"Brilliant Drummer wanted for Heavy Guitar band - must be able to play like Mitch Mitchell, Ginger Baker, Keith Moon."
A student at Imperial saw the posting and immediately told his roommate, a London Hospital medical school student by the name of Roger Taylor. Though enrolled for a dentistry degree, music was Taylor's first passion and he immediately responded to the advertisement.
May later recalled: "I went to the Imperial jazz room, which I'd booked for the evening, and Roger was there already, hitting the skins, fiddling around, turning knobs. I said, 'What're you doing?' He said, 'I'm tuning them.' I'd never seen a drummer do that before! I was impressed. He'd got great energy, but was very neat too, particularly with the snare drum: he'd do these ththththrump things which started very cleanly and precisely on time. Immediately, the sound of my guitar and his drums had that hugeness. We hit it off like brothers too..."
Smile would achieve moderate success during their brief existence, recording several original songs that May and Staffell had written.
Smile songs:
April Lady
A cover song, with May and Taylor both taking a lead vocal turn.
April Lady.
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Blag
Written by Taylor and May, with Staffell on lead vocals, though the song is primarily an instrumental.
Blag contains the earliest incarnation of what would become May's famed "Brighton Rock guitar solo".
Blag
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Doin' Alright:
Written by May and Staffell, the song would be re-born on Queen's debut album.
The Smile version features Taylor and Staffell on lead vocals.
Doin' Alright
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Earth:
Written by Staffell, who takes lead vocals.
Earth
Earth, re-recorded in the mid 2000's for Staffell's solo album and would feature him in a lead vocal trade-off with May.
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Polar Bear:
Written by May, with Staffell on lead vocals.
The song would later be recorded by Queen, though it would not be released on any Queen album.
Polar Bear
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Step On Me:
With Staffell on lead vocals.
Step On Me
Rare 1967 recording of the song by 1984, with Staffell on lead vocals.
As it began...:
Their biggest fan was a friend of Staffell's and fellow graphics illustration major at Ealing College of Art by the name of Freddie Bulsara. Introduced to one another through their mutual friendship with Staffell, May and Bulsara found a common bond in their love of the same types of music and their equal fascination of melodies, harmonies, overdub, and sound production.
Bulsara held Smile, and especially May and Staffell in the highest regard, and was awestruck by their ability to write songs; Freddie was just beginning to write his own music during this period of time. Bulsara flitted between several mediocre bands, all the while desperate to join Smile and become their lead singer. He would get his wish in 1970 after Smile's trio of musicians, disillusioned by their lack of success, went their separate ways. Freddie swooped in and, after a good deal of encouragement, convinced May and Taylor to form a band with him as their lead singer.
Bulsara would later become Freddie Mercury, and the band that he would form with May and Taylor would be none other than Queen.
And the rest, as they say.. is history.
