Released: September 2, 1990

Songwriter: Martin L. Gore

Producer: Depeche Mode Flood

[Chorus]
Happiest girl I ever knew
Happiest girl I ever knew

[Verse 1]
Wanted to feel the joy
Flow between our lips
Wanted to feel the joy
Flow between our hips

[Chorus]
Happiest girl I ever knew
Why do you smile the smile you do?

[Interlude]

[Chorus]
Happiest girl I ever knew
Happiest girl I ever knew

[Verse 2]
Wanted to feel the joy
Pass between our eyes
Wanted to feel the joy
Pass between our thighs

[Chorus]
Happiest girl I ever knew
Why do you smile the smile you do?

[Bridge]
And I would have to pinch her
Just to see if she was real
Just to watch the smile fade away
See the pain she'd feel

[Chorus]
Happiest girl I ever knew
Happiest girl I ever knew

[Verse 3]
Wanted to feel her joy
Feel it deep within
Wanted to feel her joy
Penetrate my skin

[Chorus]
Happiest girl I ever knew
Why do you smile the smile you do?

[Outro]
Why do you smile the smile you do?
Why do you smile the smile you do?
Why do you smile the smile you do?
Why do you smile the smile you do?
Why do you smile the smile you do?

Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode are recognized as one of the most artistically influential bands of the late 20th century. Commercially, they have released 14 studio albums to date, and sold more than 100 million records. Their most recent album, Spirit, hit the streets in March 2017.

The band got their start in Basildon, Essex in 1980, and named themselves after a French fashion magazine. They rose to fame with hits that have become “Just Can’t Get Enough” (1981), “Everything Counts” (1983), and “People Are People” (1984), to name a few. One of their most famous concerts was at the Pasadena Rose Bowl in 1988.

Martin Gore has been the band’s primary songwriter since Vince Clarke left in the early 1980s (and went on to form Yazoo and Erasure). Alan Wilder replaced Clarke on keyboards in 1982, but left in 1995 (reinvesting his creative energy in his band, Recoil, which he had started in 1986). Since then, the band has comprised frontman Dave Gahan, multi-instrumentalist Martin Gore, and keyboardist Andy Fletcher—all of whom are original members.