“Give the World a Smile” was the theme song for the Stamps Quartet, and probably the first Gospel song to become a “gold record.” According to Otis Deaton, in November 1924, he and M. L. Yandell were students at the Stamps School of Music in Jacksonville, Texas. Yandell wrote a tune and asked James Rowe if he would write words for it. Rowe was not able to come up with suitable words, so Yandell asked Deaton, and Deaton wrote lyrics called “Keep the Song Wave Rolling On,” but when they showed this song to V. O. Stamps, he pointed out that there was already a similar song by H. W. Elliott. Deaton then wrote the lyrics for “Give the World a Smile.” V. O. paid each of them $5.00 cash for the song.