Song Of The Day 11/1/2012: Brett Smiley - "Space Ace"

This is one smoochable video clip, I don't even know where to begin. The year is a very angelically-lit 1974. Russell Harty, the late British talk show host who hit his stride in the glam and punk eras, introduces a "young American" named Brett Smiley, who's being shopped around Europe by Andrew Loog Oldham, who launched the Rolling Stones into superstardom. They're trying to break Smiley in Europe because they don't think America's ready for him. Smiley launches into a very breathy, almost whispered rendition of his own composition, "Space Ace," a full two years after Ziggy Stardust. You know what they say about timing.

I don't know what I like best about this clip. Harty opens this segment with an utter lack of conviction, and eventually ends it with -- well, a total lack of conviction. Oldham looks like he's lost a bet. Smiley, a snooze-eyed eighteen years old, did his homework, ladies and gentlemen. The flitting, the contrived distance, the hours spent in the BowieTron, the long stretch of pink polyester clinging to his lithe young limbs, the attempt at a half-British accent a full 20 years before Madonna. And the sunglasses conundrum, which never quite gets settled to everyone's ethical satisfaction.

I love this. This is one of the most gloriously insincere music-on-TV moments I've ever seen. Nobody involved in this clip believes themselves or each other for a hot minute. There's no business like...

Everything! That's what they say about timing! It's everything! That's right.