Active since 1964, Smith is widely considered to be one of the genre's best female vocalists. She has earned 11 Grammy award nominations, 20 top ten Billboard country singles, and 31 charting albums, three of which have hit number one.
On October 21, 2012, Smith became the 12th solo female vocalist and 19th woman to be elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame.[1]
Despite her success, Smith is often considered among the most underrated vocalists in country music history due to the decision not to pursue super stardom with the non-country general media market like such contemporaries as Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, and Tammy Wynette .[2]
Artists such as Parton,[3] George Jones,[4] and Chely Wright[5] have cited Smith as either one of the best vocalists in the music industry or their favorite female artist.
| Connie Smith | |
|---|---|
 Smith at the Grand Ole Opry in 2007 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Constance June Meador |
| Born | August 14, 1941 Elkhart, Indiana, U.S. |
| Genres | Country, gospel |
| Occupations | Singer, songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar |
| Years active | 1963–present |
| Labels | RCA, Columbia, Monument, Epic, Warner Bros., Daywind, Sugar Hill |
| Associated acts | Bill Anderson, Dallas Frazier, Nat Stuckey, Marty Stuart |
| Website | www.conniesmithmusic.com |
Early life
Constance June Meador was born in Elkhart, Indiana, the daughter of Hobart and Wilma Meador. Her parents were originally from West Virginia, and when Smith was five months old, the family returned there. They would later move to Dungannon, Ohio.[6]Her father was abusive when she was a child, which would eventually cause her to suffer a mental breakdown when she was a teenager.[2] When she was seven, her mother divorced her father and remarried Tom Clark, who had eight children, along with the five additional children Smith's mother previously had.
The couple would eventually have two more children together, which in total added up to fourteen children, including Smith. As a child, Smith was surrounded by music. Her stepfather played mandolin, while her brother played fiddle, and her other brother played guitar.
On Saturday nights Smith would listen to the Grand Ole Opry radio broadcast.[6] While she was a teenager, Smith was injured in a lawnmower accident, which nearly cut her leg off. While in the hospital recovering, she was given a guitar and learned how to play different chords. Following the recovery, she began to perform in various local talent contests.[7]
In 1959, Smith graduated from Salem-Liberty High School as the class salutatorian.[8]
In August 1963, she entered a talent contest at the Frontier Ranch country music park near Columbus, Ohio. Performing Jean Shepard's "I Thought of You", Smith won the talent contest and five silver dollars.[9]
That day at the park, country artist Bill Anderson heard Smith perform and was impressed by her voice. In January 1964, Smith ran into Anderson again at a country music package concert, where he invited her to perform with him on Ernest Tubb's Midnight Jamboree program in Nashville, Tennessee.[10]
After performing on the program, Smith returned to Nashville that May to record demos by Anderson that he planned on pitching to other country artists. Anderson's manager Hubert Long brought the demo recording to RCA Victor Records, where producer Chet Atkins heard it.
Also impressed by her vocals, Atkins offered Smith a recording contract, and she eventually signed with the label on June 24, 1964.[9][10]
Musical career
1964–1967: Breakthrough
Because Chet Atkins found himself too busy with other artists, Bob Ferguson acted as Smith's producer on her first sessions and would continue to work as her producer until her departure from RCA.Smith's first session took place on July 16, 1964, where she recorded four songs, three of which were written by Bill Anderson.[11] One of the four songs recorded during the session entitled "Once a Day" (written by Anderson especially for Smith) was chosen to be Smith's debut single.
The song was rush-released as a single on August 1, 1964 and became Smith's breakout single, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Magazine Hot Country Singles chart on November 28 and remained at the number one position for eight weeks.[9]
"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.[12]
RCA released Smith's self-titled debut album in March 1965 which also reached No. 1, spending seven weeks at the top of the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, and spending 30 weeks on the chart overall.[13]
In addition, the album also peaked at No. 105 on the Billboard 200 albums chart around the same time.[14] Dan Cooper of Allmusic called the production of the album to sound as if she was "a down-home Streisand fronting The Lennon Sisters."[15]
During this time, Anderson wrote a series of singles that would jump-start Smith's career in the country music industry.[16]
Among these songs was Smith's follow-up single to "Once a Day" released in early 1965 titled "Then and Only Then". The song peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard country chart. In addition, its B-side, "Tiny Blue Transistor Radio" (originally intended for Skeeter Davis), was also written by Anderson and peaked within the Top 25 on the same singles chart.[13]
In 1965 Smith officially became a member of the Grand Ole Opry radio show in Nashville, Tennessee. It had been a dream of Smith's to become a member since childhood, remembering saying at the age of five, "Someday I’m gonna sing on the Grand Ole Opry."[17]
In the mid-60s Smith was temporarily fired from the Grand Ole Opry for not being on the show for twenty six weeks out of the year, which was the required amount of weeks to stay a member at the time. In the 1970s, Smith was nearly fired from the show for testifying about Jesus Christ.[10]
In October 1965, Smith released her second studio album Cute 'n' Country.[18] The album featured both cover versions of other country songs and newer songs written by Bill Anderson. It included cover versions of songs by such artists as Jim Reeves, Webb Pierce, and Ray Price.[19]
Like her first album, Cute 'n' Country reached No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and spent thirty weeks on the chart as well.[18]
Her next two singles, "If I Talk to Him" and "Nobody But a Fool (Would Love You)", both reached No. 4 on the Hot Country Singles chart and were issued on Smith's third album, Miss Smith Goes to Nashville (1966).[20]
The album peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart.[21] With her next few sessions, Smith's producer Bob Ferguson felt pressured from RCA headquarters in New York City to market Smith's sound toward more "middle-of-the-road" country pop material.
This change of sound was evident on her next two studio albums Born to Sing (1966) and Downtown Country (1967). Both albums featured full orchestras in the background and cover versions of singles by pop artists of the time.[22]
Spawned from Born to Sing and Downtown Country were the singles "Ain't Had No Lovin'" and "The Hurtin's All Over", which both peaked within the Top 5 on the Hot Country Singles chart.[2]
During this time, Smith also appeared in several country music vehicle films, where she performed many of her current hit recordings.[23]
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.[24]
In February 1967, Smith released an album with RCA Camden entitled Connie in the Country, which mainly featured cover versions of country hits recorded at the time, including songs by Loretta Lynn and Buck Owens.[25]
In May 1967 Smith released an album of songs written entirely by Bill Anderson entitled Connie Smith Sings Bill Anderson. Smith later commented that, "...it was an honor, not a favor" to record an album of all Bill Anderson songs. Included in the album was covers of Anderson's own hits such as "City Lights" and "That's What It's Like to Be Lonesome". Also featured was Anderson's "I Love You Drops", which Smith wanted to release as a single; however Anderson wanted to release the song as his own single.
Smith stated, "We begged him for that song. But I cut 33 of his songs." It would later become a top ten hit for Anderson.[26]
Between 1966 and 1968, Smith had five top ten singles in a row on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart:[2] "I'll Come Running" (which Smith wrote herself), "Cincinnati, Ohio", "Burning a Hole in My Mind", "Baby's Back Again", and "Run Away Little Tears". "Cincinnati, Ohio" would later inspire the city of Cincinnati, Ohio to declare their own "Connie Smith Day" in June 1967.[26]
1968–1972: New directions
By 1968, Smith began to feel large amounts of pressure from the music business. The stress of touring, recording, promoting, and trying to keep a personal life led Smith to contemplate the possibility of suicide.Although she thought about suicide, Smith later clarified that she never saw the idea as an actual possibility.[10] These pressures eventually led Smith to seek solace in both her family life and religion, becoming a Born Again Christian in the spring of 1968.[9][16]
Although she did not give up her music career completely, Smith did balance it with a lighter schedule in order to avoid stress.[2]
In 1968 and 1969, Smith also began to record darker songs, including the single "Ribbon of Darkness", among others. Smith stated that it was reflection on her personal life, after recently divorcing her first husband Jerry Smith.[10]
Despite her recent personal troubles, Smith continued to enjoy the same commercial success she had before. In 1969 her next single "You and Your Sweet Love" (written by Bill Anderson) reached No. 6 on the Billboard Magazine Hot Country Singles chart. This was followed by another top ten single in 1970, entitled "I Never Once Stopped Loving You", which reached No. 5 on the same singles chart.[2][27]
Between 1969 and 1970, Smith released two collaborative albums with American country artist Nat Stuckey called Young Love and Sunday Morning with Nat Stuckey and Connie Smith, the latter of which was a gospel album.[10]
Between 1970 and 1971, both the singles "Louisiana Man" and "Where Is My Castle" became top 20 hits on the Billboard Magazine country singles chart.[28]
In 1971 Smith's cover of Don Gibson's 1960 single "Just One Time" reached No. 2 on the Hot Country Singles chart.[28] An album of the same name was also released, which reached No. 20 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart.[29]
By the early 1970s, Smith started to incorporate more Gospel music into her regular studio albums and touring show.[2] Smith later stated that by incorporating more Gospel music into her secular recording career would make her leap into Christianity "count".[10]
In 1971, she released her third gospel album, Come Along and Walk with Me, which Smith later stated was her favorite gospel record out of the many she has made.[30]
In 1972, all three of Smith's singles reached the top ten on the Billboard Magazine Hot Country Singles chart: "Just for What I Am" (#5), "If It Ain't Love (Let's Leave It Alone)" (#7), and "Love Is the Look You're Looking for" (#8).[2]
In addition, three albums were also released to accommodate the success of the three singles, including a tribute to songwriter Dallas Frazier named If It Ain't Love and Other Great Dallas Frazier Songs.[20]
In November 1972, Smith announced she would depart from RCA Records, the same week that country artist Eddy Arnold also announced his departure.[27]
Smith later explained in an interview with Razor & Tie that she felt RCA showed a lack of respect for her and she felt she would have been happier recording elsewhere.[31]
Personal life
Smith has been married four times. In 1961, she married her first husband, Jerry Smith, a ferroanalyst at the Inter-Lake Iron Corporation in Beverly, Ohio. The couple had one child together on March 9, 1963 named Darren Justin.[8]In the late 1970s, Darren went to Europe to become a missionary, and is currently a psychologist.[10][49] In the mid-1960s, the couple divorced and Smith married the guitarist in her touring band, Jack Watkins. They had a son, Kerry Watkins, before separating nearly a year after marrying.
Shortly afterward, Smith married telephone repairman Marshall Haynes. In the early 70s, the Haynes frequently toured with Smith on her road show. The couple had three daughters: Jeanne, Julie, and Jodi Haynes.[27]
After divorcing Haynes in the early 1990s, Smith stated that she would never marry again,[10] but on July 8, 1997 Smith married 1990s country artist Marty Stuart. The couple met while writing songs together for Smith's 1998 comeback album.
Thirty eight years before, Stuart first encountered her one night after attending her concert: "I met Connie when I was 12 years old. She came to the Indian reservation in my hometown to work at a fair.
She hasn't changed a bit. She looked great then and she looks great now."[50] Smith said that they have sustained their marriage by making "...the Lord the center ... and commit."[51]
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