Connie Smith
Connie Smith is an American country music singer and songwriter. Her contralto vocals have been described by music writers as significant and influential to the women of country music. A similarity has been noted between her vocal style and the stylings of country vocalist Patsy Cline. Other performers have cited Smith as influence on their own singing styles, which has been reflected in quotes and interviews over the years.
Discovered in 1963, Smith signed with RCA Victor Records the following year and remained with the label until 1973. Her debut single "Once a Day" was nominated at the Grammy Awards for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and reached number one on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in November 1964 and remained at the top position for eight weeks. In 1991, Trisha Yearwood's debut single went to number one for two weeks, but Smith still held the record for the most number of weeks at number one by any female country artist in history. Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" broke Smith's 48 year record in 2012. Smith's success continued through 1960s and mid-1970s, with 19 more top-10 hits on the country songs chart.
In the early 1970s, Smith began to record gospel music more frequently as she became more serious in her Christianity. As she focused more heavily on religion, Smith became known for her outspoken religious demeanor at concerts and music venues. At the same time, she spent more time raising her five children than focusing on music. She eventually went into semiretirement in 1979 and returned to recording briefly in the mid-1980s with Epic Records. In the 1990s, though, she returned to music permanently with her collaboration with Marty Stuart. Their musical friendship became romantic, leading to their marriage in 1997, and to Connie Smith, her first studio album in 20 years. Critically acclaimed, Smith began performing again and has recorded two more studio albums.
Smith has been nominated for 11 Grammy Awards, including eight nominations for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. She has also been nominated for one Academy of Country Music award and three Country Music Association awards. Rolling Stone included her on its list of the 100 greatest country music artists and CMT ranked her among the top 10 in its list of the 40 greatest women of country music. She has been a member of the Grand Ole Opry cast since 1965. In 2012, Smith was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Early life
Constance June Meador was born to Wilma and Hobart Meador in Elkhart, Indiana. Her parents were originally from West Virginia, and when Smith was five months old, the family returned there. They later moved to Dungannon, Ohio. Her biological father was an abusive alcoholic. "There were some tough times that I went through as a young child," she told an interviewer. Wilma Meador eventually divorced Hobart Meador and remarried to Tom Clark, who brought eight children into the marriage to join Meador's five; the couple had two children, totaling 15 children.Smith was influenced by music in her childhood. Her stepfather played mandolin, one brother played fiddle, and another brother played guitar. On Saturday nights, the family tuned into the Grand Ole Opry radio broadcast. She took up the guitar following a lawnmower accident that nearly cut off her leg. While she was recovering in the hospital, she was given a guitar and learned how to play different chords. Smith did not perform publicly until high school, when a friend invited her to sing Connie Francis's pop hit "My Happiness".
With only one-tenth of a point behind the valedictorian, Smith graduated from Salem-Liberty High School in 1959 as the class salutatorian. Following graduation, she worked as telephone operator in Lowell, Ohio. She also worked in a grocery story, as a drugstore clerk, and as a dental assistant. At age 19, she married her first husband, Jerry Smith, who encouraged her singing, and she began performing with more frequency. Her first professional performance was at the 1962 Washington County Fair. She then briefly joined the cast of Saturday Night Jamboree, a local country-music television program, but was fired after her first performance, later theorizing it was because she was pregnant. She then successfully auditioned for and landed a spot on a similar program for WSAZ-TV.
Despite performance opportunities, Smith intended to remain a homemaker and mother. In August 1963, Smith entered a talent contest at the Frontier Ranch country music park near Columbus, Ohio. Performing Jean Shepard's "I Thought of You", she won the talent contest and five silver dollars. Judging the contest was country singer-songwriter Bill Anderson, who was instantly impressed by her voice. "At first I thought they were playing a record and she was lip sync'ing it," he later explained.
In January 1964, Smith ran into Anderson again at a country-music package concert in Canton, Ohio. He invited her to perform with him on Ernest Tubb's Midnite Jamboree program in Nashville, Tennessee. When Smith performed on the program in March 1964, she found out that she would not be performing with Anderson, but instead with Tubb. Impressed by her performance, Loretta Lynn introduced herself after the show and gave her career advice. After performing on the program, Smith returned to Nashville that May to make demonstration records by Anderson that he planned on pitching to other country artists. Anderson's manager, Hubert Long, brought the demo recording to the RCA Victor label, where producer Chet Atkins heard it. Also impressed by her vocals, Atkins offered Smith a recording contract, and she signed on June 24, 1964.
Career
1964–1967: "Once a Day" and peak success
After signing Smith to RCA, Atkins found himself too busy with other artists. Instead, he enlisted Bob Ferguson to act as Smith's producer. The pair developed a close professional relationship and Ferguson remained her producer until she departed from RCA. "I couldn't have asked for a better person to work with. He is one of the finest men I've ever known," Smith later said. Smith's first session took place on July 16, 1964, where she recorded four songs. Three of these tracks were written by Bill Anderson, who agreed to write material for Smith. Two days later, Smith made her debut on the Grand Ole Opry. One of the four songs recorded on July 16 was "Once a Day", which was chosen to be Smith's debut single. "Once a Day" was released in August 1964 and reached number one on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart on November 28. It remained at the number-one position for eight weeks in late 1964 and early 1965. "Once a Day" became the first debut single by a female country artist to reach number one. For nearly 50 years, the single held the record for the most weeks spent at number one on the Billboard country chart by a female artist.Smith started performing more regularly with "Once a Day"'s success. Bill Anderson briefly served as her manager, but was replaced by Charlie Lamb. Smith made her first network-television appearance in October 1964 on ABC's The Jimmy Dean Show. In March 1965, RCA Victor released her self-titled debut album It also reached the number-one spot, spending a total of seven weeks at the top of the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. Dan Cooper of Allmusic gave the disc a positive reception and described Smith as "a down-home Streisand fronting the Lennon Sisters."
Bill Anderson fulfilled his promise to RCA Victor and continued writing Smith's next single releases. Producer Bob Ferguson and steel guitar player Weldon Myrick created a "high" and "punchy" production that Ferguson thought would sound pleasing on car radios. "I thought it was an awfully thin sound, but it wound up being very popular," Myrick recalled. In 1965, RCA issued Smith's follow-up single written by Anderson titled "Then and Only Then", which reached number four on the Billboard country songs chart. It was followed by another Anderson-written top 10 single titled "I Can't Remember". In October 1965, the latter song appeared on Cute 'n' Country, Smith's second studio album. Although she disliked the name of the LP, it became her second disc to top the Billboard country albums chart. She had additional top-five Billboard country singles through early 1966 with Anderson's "Nobody But a Fool " and Priscilla Mitchell's "If I Talk to Him". In 1965, Smith became a member of the Grand Ole Opry.
In 1966, Ferguson felt pressured from RCA headquarters to market Smith's sound toward "middle-of-the-road" country pop material. Smith was against the pop production, but nevertheless agreed to try it. The pair did several sessions featuring a string instrumentation. The style appeared on her next studio releases Born to Sing and Downtown Country. Both albums featured full orchestras in the background and cover versions of singles by pop artists of the time. Featured on the LPs were the singles "Ain't Had No Lovin'" and "The Hurtin's All Over", which both reached the Billboard country top five. During this time, Smith appeared in several country music vehicle films, where she performed many of her current hit recordings. In 1966, she appeared in the films Second Fiddle to a Steel Guitar and The Las Vegas Hillbillys, the latter of which starred Jayne Mansfield. In 1967, she appeared in The Road to Nashville and Hell on Wheels. Smith's touring schedule also increased. In 1966, she formed her own touring band named the Sundowners and later married the band's guitar player, Jack Watkins.
In February 1967, RCA's subsidiary budget label Camden released Smith's next studio LP titled Connie in the Country. The LP included covers of popular country recordings of the era and "Cry, Cry, Cry", a single by Smith that reached the top 20. In May 1967, RCA released an album of songs written solely by Bill Anderson titled Connie Smith Sings Bill Anderson. Smith later commented, "it was an honor, not a favor" to record an album of all Anderson tunes. It included covers of Anderson's hits such as "City Lights" and "That's What It's Like to Be Lonesome". Included on the album was "Cincinnati, Ohio", which Smith released as a single and brought the song to the Billboard country top five. Its success later inspired the city of Cincinnati to declare its own Connie Smith Day in June 1967. Smith remained at her commercial zenith through 1967 with a continued series of top-10 recordings. Her further hits included the "I'll Come Runnin'", "Burning a Hole in My Mind", "Baby's Back Again", and "Run Away Little Tears". Three of these recordings were included on Smith's 1967 album I Love Charley Brown, which reached the country LPs top 20.