[edit] Overview

Both versions of "Smiling Faces Sometimes" deal with the same subject matter, "back-stabbing" friends who do their friends wrong behind their backs ("Smiling faces sometimes...they don't tell the truth...smiling faces sometimes tell lies"), but in different ways. The Temptations' original uses an arrangement similar to a haunted house film score to represent feelings of fear and timidness. Included on the 1971 Sky's the Limit album, "Smiling Faces Sometimes" runs over 12 minutes, most of which is comprised of extended instrumental passages without any vocals. An edited version was planned as the Temptations' summer 1971 single release, but this plan was dropped when Eddie Kendricks, frustrated by personnel problems within the group, quit The Temptations and signed a solo deal with Motown in March 1971.

Norman Whitfield was known for recording dramatically different versions of the same song with different Motown artists, including Smokey Robinson & the Miracles' "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (re-recorded as hit records for Gladys Knight & the Pips, and Marvin Gaye) and The Temptations' "War" (re-recorded as a hit for Edwin Starr). After Kendricks left The Temptations, an undaunted Whitfield re-recorded the song with his latest protégés, a psychedelic trio called The Undisputed Truth.

Whitfield had put the group together in 1970 by extracting female singers Billie Rae Calvin and Brenda Joyce from The Delicates and adding male lead singer Joe Harris to complete the group. Their first single, "Save My Love For A Rainy Day", was released in March 1971, but failed to make an impact, only reaching #43 on the Black Singles charts. With "Smiling Faces Sometimes" as their second single, however, Whitfield was sure he would have a hit on his hands.

The Undisputed Truth's version of "Smiling Faces Sometimes" replaces the fear and anxiety of the original with bitterness, anger, and an even more dramatically haunting arrangement. Harris sings most of the lead vocals, with Calvin and Joyce's background harmonies giving the record a notably chilling feel. The trio delivers the ominous warnings in the song's lyrics with more force and directness than Kendricks and Edwards did in the original version. Whitfield's instrumental arrangement is much shorter and brassier in this version, with sharper changes in dynamics and more prominent uses of electric guitars and Hammond organs.

"Smiling Faces Sometimes" hit the Top 5 on both the Billboard Pop Singles and Black Singles charts, peaking on those charts at #3 and #2, respectively. The song was referenced in The O'Jays' similarly-themed 1972 hit "Back Stabbers", and has been covered by Bobbi Humphrey, Joan Osbourne, Rare Earth, and others.

Future Undisputed Truth singles would never make it higher than #63, a position attained by both 1972's "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" and 1974's "Help Yourself". Ironically, "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" was re-recorded by The Temptations shortly after its release, and the re-recorded version became not only a #1 pop hit, but a three-time Grammy Award winner as well.