West Virginia Music Hall of Fame, Class of 2011

Heritage & Legacy: Connie Smith

Born to Sing

“There’s really only three female singers in the world: Linda Ronstadt, Barbara Streisand, and Connie Smith.  The rest are just pretending.”  Dolly Parton.

Connie Smith is known in Nashville as “a singer’s, singer”, meaning, though Smith was not as well known as such contemporaries as Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette, she has been cited as a favorite singer, of such music greats as George Jones, Junior Brown, Chet Atkins, Bill Anderson, Merle Haggard, Marty Stuart and Neil Young.  She has often been compared to Patsy Cline and a similarity has been noted between her vocal stylings and the delivery of the country music legend.

She seemed to come out of nowhere in August of 1964 when her debut single, “Once a Day”, was released and reached number one on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in November.  It held the number one spot for eight weeks.  “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.

The smart little girl who went to grade school in Hinton, West Virginia and later was salutatorian of her high school, went onto be nominated for 11 Grammy Awards, including 8 nominations for Best Female Country Vocal Performance.  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, Connie Smith was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

And best of all, at the age of 83, Connie Smith is still going strong.  She still makes regular appearances on the Grand Ole Opry and, since 2021, has recorded two very strong albums in partnership with her husband/producer, Marty Stuart.

Her parents were migrant farm workers and times were often hard, so Smith escaped by listening obsessively to the radio, especially the Grand Ole Opry.  She has cited Kitty Wells and Jean Shepard as favorites.  She was also drawn to the jazz stylings of Nancy Wilson and Sarah Vaughn.

Her biological father was an abusive alcoholic and her mother divorced him to remarry.  Smith’s new stepfather brought eight children to the marriage, now added to her mother’s five children.  The couple had two more children together, totaling 15 children.  They later moved to Ohio.

As a young music fan, Smith taught herself to play acoustic guitar while recuperating from a lawnmower accident.  Smith did not perform publicly until her freshman year in Hinton when she sang a Connie Francis song to an assembly.  

After the move to West Liberty, Ohio, Constance Meador/Connie Smith graduated from Salem-Liberty High School in 1959 as the class salutatorian, only one-tenth of a point behind the class salutatorian.  Following graduation she worked as a telephone operator.

Anderson heard Smith again on a shared New Year’s Day bill in Canton, Ohio, and after the show, he encouraged her to come to Nashville.  With Anderson’s help, Smith performed on the Ernest Tubb Record Shop’s Midnite Jamboree in March of 1964.  In May, she came back to Nashville and cut four demos of Anderson’s songs, which led Chet Atkins to sign Connie Smith to RCA Records.

Smith went into the studio with RCA staff producer Bob Ferguson, who would become an important studio collaborator.  She cut the Anderson-written “Once a Day” in July of 1964 at RCA Studio B.  As noted, it spent eight weeks at #1.

In 1965, Smith joined the Grand Ole Opry, where she has remained a fan favorite for decades.  She achieved nineteen Top Ten hits through 1973, establishing herself as a singer of consistent quality and rare emotional impact with one of the most powerful and recognizable voices in country music.  Her material leaned heavily toward standard themes of lost love, heartache and heartbreak, as exemplified by such classic hits as Anderson’s “Then and Only Then” and Dallas Frazier’s “Ain’t Had No Lovin’”

Many of Smith’s most effective hits featured straight ahead country arrangements, highlighted by Weldon Myrick’s pedal steel guitar always being featured prominently in what came to be called the “Connie Smith Sound”.   She also favored certain songwriters including her mentor Bill Anderson, and those of Frazier, who had a hand in writing more than sixty songs that Smith recorded over the years.

Despite the impact of her work, Smith felt the strong pull of family and religion on her heart.  After switching to Columbia Records in 1973, she devoted more energy to religious songs and less time to the road.  She even specified in her Columbia contract that she be allowed to record one gospel album a year.  Throughout her career, her concerts have included spiritual showstoppers, such as “How Great Thou Art” and “Peace in the Valley”.

After leaving Columbia, Smith recorded for Monument Records in the late 1970’s.  She recorded less frequently after 1980, but remained an Opry favorite.  In 1998, she released a self-titled Warner Bros. album produced by Marty Sturart, whom she had married the previous year.

Connie & Marty

In 1969, twenty-eight year old Connie Smith was a big time country and western star touring the United States and bringing her music to her fans.   One of those shows was at the Choctaw Indian Fair in Philadelphia, Mississippi, where Hilda Stuart brought her eleven-year-old son, Marty, along to see her favorite female singer.

As Marty Stuart remembered, “When she stepped out on stage she was breathtakingly beautiful, wearing a blue sparkle dress.  And I got my picture made with her that night, me and my sister did.  I got her autograph, but she didn’t really notice me.  I took another picture of her and fell in love. On the way home, in the car, I declared that I was going to marry Connie Smith one day.”  On July 8, 1997 Marty Stuart married Connie Smith.

Connie Smith has navigated through this life with four marriages, five children, a growing tribe of grandchildren, and 54 record albums and is still a force of nature.  

In March of 2021, Smith’s legacy was further cemented by the Library of Congress, which added “Once a Day” to the National Recording Registry.

Authors Note:  

SOURCES

Colin Escott – Born to Sing: Connie Smith.  2001.  Bear Family Records.

Dayton Duncan – Country Music –  2019.

Country Music Hall of Fame

West Virginia Music Hall of Fame

The Nashville Tennessean. 

Photo Sources:

The Nashville Tennessean newspaper.

The Marty Stuart Show.

Country Music Hall of Fame.

Discogs.

RECOMMENDED LISTENING – by the author

1. “Once a Day”.  1964.  A huge hit that was #1 for 8 weeks.  It’s got it all.  The “Connie Smith Sound”.  Her strong, yet vulnerable voice, singing a song on constant heartbreak and heartache.  All accompanied by the sweet steel guitar playing of Weldon Myrick.   Connie Smith Once A Day

2. “A Million and One”.   This song is from her strong 2021 album The Cry of the Heart.  Connie Smith – A Million and One (Official Video)

3. “I Run to You”.  A wonderful duet between Connie Smith and husband Marty Stuart.  Marty Stuart & Connie Smith ~ “I Run To You”

4. “Ain’t Had No Lovin’”.  This was a #2 Country hit for Connie Smith in 1966.  It was written by the great Dallas Frazier.  Connie Smith – Ain’t Had No Lovin’ – YouTube

5. “If I Talk to Him”.  Another big hit for Connie in 1966.  The camera opens on the great steel guitar player, Weldon Myrick.  He was a huge part of her music.  Connie Smith with Lloyd Green – If I Talk To Him

6. “Cincinnati, Ohio” – 1967.  My favorite Connie Smith song.  Here’s an earworm.  You’re welcome.  Cincinnati, Ohio – YouTube

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Steve Goff is a past President of West Virginia Writers, Inc.; and his record reviews have appeared in national music publications such as Goldmine, Stereo Review, and Hit Parader. An avid music collector, he is still hanging onto over 8,000 pieces of recorded music, 6,200 of which are on poly-vinyl.