"Up in a Puff of Smoke" | ||||
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Single by Polly Brown | ||||
B-side | "I'm Saving All My Love" | |||
Released |
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Recorded | 1974 | |||
Genre | Pop | |||
Length | 3:20 | |||
Label | GTO Records | |||
Songwriter(s) | Gerry Shury, Phillip Swern | |||
Producer(s) | Gerry Shury, Phillip Swern | |||
Polly Brown singles chronology | ||||
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"Up in a Puff of Smoke" is a song recorded in 1974 by Polly Brown, released as a non-album single to become an international Top 40 hit in 1975.
The songwriting/production team of Gerry Shury and Ron Roker had admired Brown's voice from her Pickettywitch recordings. Shury, who had arranged Brown's 1972 self-titled album release, described her as a cross "between Diana Ross and Dionne Warwick". [1] In 1974, Shury and Roker had Brown record the neo-Motown number "Up in a Puff of Smoke". In the same session Brown, with Roker as co-vocalist, recorded a cover of the ABBA song "Honey, Honey", which was released under the name Sweet Dreams. [1]
Canadian blue-eyed soul singer Charity Brown turned down the chance to cover "Up in a Puff of Smoke" for the Canadian market, [2] but she did record the B-side song of the Polly Brown single, the mid-tempo Shury/Swern ballad "I'm Saving All My Love", as "Saving All My Love". Introduced on Brown's 1975 album release Rock Me, the track was released as a single, reaching #61 on the Canadian singles chart in February 1976. [3]
"Up in a Puff of Smoke" proved to be a UK Top 40 shortfall although it did spend five weeks in the Top 50, peaking at #43. [4] However, the track became a hit in several English speaking countries: Australia (#22), [5] Canada (#11), [6] New Zealand (#13), [7] and the US (#16). [8]
Weekly charts
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Gerald Roland Shury was a British songwriter, arranger, and record producer who worked in the late 1960s and 1970s.