Born on October 16, 1937, in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada,[2] Harvey Edgar Bates (known as Smiley) was the youngest of eleven children; he had seven brothers and three sisters.
In 1948, at eleven years of age, Smiley joined Curly Carter and the Mountaineers, playing the fiddle.
The band performed together for about five years, entertaining listeners on radio stations CJKL in Kirkland Lake and CKGB in Timmins.
[3] After the LaPorte brothers moved to the Ottawa Valley, Smiley formed a new band featuring Jerry Goselin on rhythm guitar and bass, and Mike Zuppan on accordion.
There, he connected with Slim Gordon and undertook an Ontario tour which combined club dates and one-night stands at arenas and halls.
[3] It included The Gal Who Invented Kissing and My Nova Scotia Home, and was issued as a custom pressing.
Although Bates arrived at the studio suffering a hangover, he still managed to record three albums in five hours:[3] "Golden Guitar", "5-String Banjo Bluegrass", and "Fiddler's Dream", engineered by the late Bill Bessey, who was known to his fans as "Cousin Bill" on CBC radio, and later the announcer on the Tommy Hunter TV Show.
“Songs from the Heart” and “Flat Top Guitar Instrumentals” showcased Smiley’s talent and advanced his career.
In 1973, Doug Taylor (Smiley's record producer at the time) asked him to headline an all-Canadian country show in Wheeling, West Virginia, featuring Joe Firth, Bobby Munro, Joanne Post, Steve Smith, and Eastwind.
Though he had not seen the film, it only took a couple of tries to arrive at an arrangement, which, while not representative of Smiley's recording output, was nevertheless a commercial success.
"Without the people, there wouldn't be me", stated Smiley,[4] who enjoyed prioritizing his fanbase and maintaining his knowledge of their favorite songs.
[2]Bates' final three years were spent battling cancer and he eventually died on January 8, 1997, in Bent River, Ontario, Canada.