Smiley Bates prompted other recording ventures. When the Instrumental hit "Duelling Banjos" from the film "Deliverance" was popular, Smiley, on Flat-Top Guitar, was teamed with Eddie Poirier on 5-String Banjo. 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. A further album was issued with Eddie and Smiley, and based upon its success, the two teamed up with Rose (Eddie's wife) to record another big-selling Bluegrass album, titled "The Best of Bluegrass". To illustrate how successful Smiley's recordings were,
Our Tune the music used as the "Our Tune" theme. In September 2012 "The Daily Telegraph" reported that a track created by users of the Poke website which remixed a speech by British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg had been compared to an edition of "Our Tune" because of its confessional nature. The original speech was an apology for Clegg's promise to block an increase in University tuition fees before the 2010 general election, a pledge on which he later reneged as a member of the post-election coalition government. In his review of the 2013 film "Labor Day", which concerns a depressed