How can a 55 year old song be a tune for our times? This is how:

“Smiling faces sometimes
Pretend to be your friend
Smiling faces show no traces
Of the evil that lurks within (Can you dig it?)”

I can indeed. Lying and backstabbing have always been with us but there’s an epidemic of such behavior in 2026.

Smiling Faces Sometimes was written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong in 1971. We had a mendacious president then as well. Tricky Dick, however, occasionally told the truth. The Kaiser of Chaos never does.

Whitfield and Strong wrote the song for The Temptations but it wasn’t released as a single because Eddie Kendricks who sang co-lead left the band. Here’s the extended version:

The Undisputed Truth were Norman Whitfield’s proteges. They were the second to record the tune. It charted, hitting #1 on The Cash Box Top 100.

Norman Whitfield also produced this version by Rare Earth:

Joan Osborne covered the Whitfield-Strong classic in 2002.

Finally, Angie Stone covered this week’s tune on her 2016 album, Covered In Soul.

What would the Friday Cocktail Hour be without an instrumental version of the week’s tune? This time, the keyboard stylings of Charles Kynard.

That’s it this for this week. Let’s drink to the truth tellers who are fighting the lies of Team MAGA. It’s what Whitfield and Strong would want. Never argue with them.