1940 saw the many of the era’s best-known performers jump on the song, including Gene Autry, The Ink Spots, and Britain’s wartime songstress Vera Lynn. New sheet music boasted photos of dance band leaders Horace Lapp of Toronto’s Royal York Hotel, and Britain’s Jack White, while Lionel Parent recorded it in French as Je ne sourirai plus.

By 1941 I’ll Never Smile Again was heard on film sung by Sinatra, Jo Stafford and the Pied Pipers in “Las Vegas Nights,” followed by Jack Benny in 1942’s “George Washington Slept Here.”

The song remained highly popular in the 1950s with jazz, pop and R&B covers by Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Big Joe Williams, and Tab Hunter. In the 1960s The Platters had a Top 30 hit, followed by The Wanderers, Al Hirt, Doris Day, The Ray Charles Singers, and France’s BouLou Ferré. Sinatra re-recorded his career-launcher twice, first in 1959 for his “When No One Cares” album and in 1965 for the 1967 Grammy-winning “A Man and His Music.”

Through the decades I’ll Never Smile Again has seen covers by Ronnie Aldrich, Ames Brothers, Anita Kerr Singers, Count Basie, Dave Brubeck, Eddie Arnold, Fats Waller, the Four Aces, Al Martino, Carl Perkins, George Shearing, and Keely Smith. Later artists include Australia’s Daddy Cool (a 1972 hit), Cleo Laine, and Barry Manilow.

Canadians who have performed Lowe’s timeless ballad include Michael Bublé, the Susie Arioli Swing Band, Oscar Peterson, David Clayton-Thomas, and Kim Stockwood.

On film the song was heard in “Good Morning, Vietnam” and “The Color of Money” and on TV’s “The Fugitive,” “McHale’s Navy,” “Leave it to Beaver,” and the Ed Sullivan, Perry Como and Lawrence Welk shows.

A year after Lowe’s death, I’ll Never Smile Again was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Ruth Lowe (1914 - 1981) was born in Toronto. A pianist in nightclubs and on radio, Lowe also wrote Sinatra’s closing theme Put Your Dreams Away (For Another Day), another CSHF inductee.