Between the autumn of 1968 and the spring of 1970, Smile entered the recording studio on two separate occasions. These recording sessions were the result of a contract signed with Lou Reizner of Mercury Records of America, in May of 1969. The band first met Reizner in April 1969, when he was in attendance for Smile's performance at the Revolution Club.

The first recording sessions occurred in June of 1969. Smile entered Trident Studios with producer John Anthony and recorded two tracks that would be released as a single soon after. The first of these tracks, Earth, was written by Tim Staffell while Step On Me, was co-written by Staffell and Brian May during their time in the band '1984'.

The group's first and only single: 'Earth/Step On Me' was released in August of 1969, but failed to make any significant impact due to poor marketing efforts at that time.

Smile's second recording session occurred in September 1969 at Wembley's De Lane Lea Studios. Fritz Freyer served as the producer for this session and the band recorded four more tracks - three of which were written by members of the band: Doin' Alright, written by Tim Staffell; Blag, written by Roger Taylor; Polar Bear, written by Brian May. Mercury Records also brought a track to the band written by Stanley Lucas called April Lady. This song featured a 5/4 time signature that appealed to the band's progressive direction.

These tracks were not released during the Smile period. They would not surface until the release of Getting' Smile in September 1982, released by Mercury Records of Japan. The tracks were released once again in 1997 on a CD entitled Ghost Of A Smile, released in Holland. This release was done with direct assistance from Tim Staffell to the project.