In 1956, Vic Damone covered this song with a very dramatic, different and interesting rendition. "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" became one of Vic Damone's most famous songs. A 1972 remake by British band Blue Haze also became popular. Saxophone player Boots Randolph did an acoustic cover of the song on the B-side of his LP Yakety Sax. Bryan Ferry recorded a quavering, briefly popular version of the song in 1974 on the album Another Time, Another Place, which reached #17 on the UK charts in September 1974. Jerry Garcia released a music video in the early 1990s covering the classic tune, with actress Ashley Judd sitting in the background listening. Similarly in the early 1990s the song was performed by Eartha Kitt as part of her work with a small jazz combo in Germany; these recordings are preserved under the name Thinking Jazz.
Other notable artists who have recorded or covered the song include Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Thelonius Monk, Art Tatum, Englebert Humperdinck, Patti Austin, Peggy Lee, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Edith Piaf, Judy Garland, Johnny Mathis, George Melachrino, Sonny Rollins, Keith Jarrett, Ray Conniff, Dinah Washington, Richard Clayderman, David Sanborn, Margaret Whiting, and Glenn Miller.
The song has been featured in several films, including George Lucas's American Graffiti (1973) and much later in the 2004 Golden Globe-winning film Being Julia, directed by István Szabó. The Platters' rendition is the centerpiece song to Steven Spielberg's 1989 film Always, and features significantly in both the plot and soundtrack of Hou Hsiao-Hsien's 2006 film, Three Times. It has also appeared in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's "The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant". Additionally, Cher's character briefly sings the first verse of the song during the 1999 film Tea With Mussolini. "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" is the title of the 2007 pilot episode of the AMC original drama Mad Men.