Composition
According to Otis Deaton, in November 1924, he and M. L. Yandell were students at the Stamps School of Music in Jacksonville, Texas. Yandell wrote a tune and asked James Rowe if he would write words for it. Rowe was not able to come up with suitable words, so Yandell asked Deaton, and Deaton wrote lyrics called “Keep the Song Wave Rolling On,” but when they showed this song to V. O. Stamps, he pointed out that there was already a similar song by H. W. Elliott. Deaton then wrote the lyrics for “Give the World a Smile.” V. O. paid each of them $5.00 cash for the song.First recording
Deaton’s recollection concludes, “So I never sold the words nor assigned them to anyone. I gave V. O. permission to print the song. The next year, 1925, the Stamps Quartet recorded it on Victor label, and that’s how ‘Give the World a Smile’ was born. The Stamps Quartet was the first Gospel Quartet to record on Victor Label, which became RCA Victor label. The Stamps Quartet recorded 'Give The World A Smile' and the recording sold over one million records. www.thestampsquartet.com 'Give The World A Smile'.Lyrics
The basic lyrics for the chorus are: ::Give the world a smile each day ::Helping someone on life's way ::From the paths of sin bring the wanderers in ::To the master's home to stay ::Help to cheer the lone and sad ::Help to make some pilgrim glad ::Let your life so be that all the world might see that you are serving Jesus with a smile.Recordings
The song, as sung by the Corley Family (in a style that might be called "folk-primitive")can be heard on-line. More recently it has been recorded by a number of different Gospel quartets, and it is still the theme song of the Stamps Quartet. A version of the song was recorded in 2000 byReferences
{{Reflist Gospel songs Southern gospel songs