Constance June Meador, known by her professional name as Connie Smith (born August 14, 1941 in Elkhart, Indiana, USA) is a country and gospel singer and songwriter who had her biggest success in the 60s and 70s.
In less than a year, Connie Smith moved from being a small town Ohio housewife to country music stardom, propelled by the success of her #1 hit, "Once a Day," which spent 8 weeks at the top of the Billboard Country Chart, the longest of any female country artist to date. The song's success made Smith an overnight star, making her one of the most successful female country singers during the 1960s and early 70s along with Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette.
Discovered by country singer-songwriter, Bill Anderson in 1963, he wrote a string of Smith's hit singles following "Once a Day," including "Cincinnati, Ohio" and "Tiny Blue Transistor Radio." These hit singles followed on the success by Patsy Cline, during the time when female country singers were beginning to gain recognition and respect in the country music industry.
While Smith was considered attractive by her fans, she was also considered a full-bodied vocalist by her counterparts.One of Smith's first recordings under the label was Anderon's "Once a Day." It was soon chosen to be her debut single, and was released in August of 1964. By November the song reached #1, staying for eight weeks at the top of Billboard's country chart and remaining on the charts for 28 weeks altogether, making Smith an overnight country star.
Her debut album, Connie Smith, remained on the charts for 30 weeks, seven of those weeks were spent at the #1 position. By the end of 1964, "Once a Day" became one of the years biggest songs in country music. It would be Smith's only #1 hit single of her career. The song once held the record for a debut single by a female artist to reach the #1 spot until Trisha Yearwood broke the record in 1991 with the song, "She's in Love with the Boy."To date it still holds the record for the most weeks spent at #1 by a female country artist, only a few artists have come close, including Faith Hill with "Breathe" in 1999, Carrie Underwood with "Jesus Take the Wheel" in 2006, and Taylor Swift with "Our Song" in 2007, all three of which spent 6 weeks at #1.The propelled success of "Once a Day" led to a string of Top 10 hits within the next five years on the Billboard Country Chart. Her follow-up single to "Once a Day," "Then and Only Then" reached #4 and its flip-side "Tiny Blue Transistor Radio" made the Top 25 in 1965. She had a string of Top 10 hits for four years, starting with "I Can't Remember" and "If I Talk to Him" in 1965, followed by "Nobody But a Fool Would Love You," "Ain't Had No Lovin," and "The Hurtin's All Over" in 1966.[1] In 1967 she had hits with "Baby's Back Again" and "Cincinnati, Ohio."[4] She also recorded an album of Bill Anderson-written songs that year titled, Connie Smith Sings Bill Anderson, although by this time she was no longer working with him.[3] Also around this time, Smith released a string of LPs which spawned her major hit singles during this period, beginning with Cute 'n' Country (1965), Miss Smith Goes to Nashville (1966), Born to Sing (1966), and Downtown Country (1967).
In 1965, Smith became a member of the Grand Ole Opry, and was in high demand for tours and concert appearances.
During these years she appeared in several country films, including Road to Nashville, Las Vegas Hillbillies with Ferlin Husky and Jayne Mansfield, and Second Fiddle to a Steel Guitar with Marty Robbins.Between 1968 and 1969, the pressures of the music business began to take a toll on her life (touring, promotion, and appearing on television, nearly pushing her to edge of suicide.[1] She was able to seek solace in both family life and her religion, Christianity. While she didn't end her career as a singer, she did slow down the number of appearances that she made on tour and in films.[2] Beginning in 1970, her success slightly declined but enough to completley threaten her popularity. In 1969, she had a Top 10 hit with "You and Your Sweet Love" and in 1970 with "I Never Once Stopped Loving You."[1] In 1969, she released a duet album with country singer, Nat Stuckey, and together their single "Young Love" became a Top 20 hit. In the early 70s Smith continued to have further Top 10 hits under RCA, and toured internationally in Europe, Australia, and the Far East.[3] In 1971 she had a Top 5 hit with "Just One Time." In 1972, she had her most successful year in the decade with three Top 10 hits; "Just for What I Am," "If it Ain't Love (Let's Leave it Alone)," and "Love is the Look You're Looking for."[1] Around this time, Smith recorded a smaller amount of recordings written by Bill Anderson and more by songwriter, Dallas Frazier, which included 1972's "If it Ain't Love (Let's Leave it Alone)."[2] The album "If it Ain't Love" was spawned off of was even titled, "If it Ain't Love" and Other Great Dallas Frazier Songs. Smith stayed with RCA until 1973, nearly serving ten years at the label.In 1973, Smith signed with Columbia Records. She began to add more Gospel music into her act, and married for a third time to an evangelist. With the help of her third husband, Smith turned her tours into a Gospel road show. At Columbia, Smith was permitted to record more Gospel material,[1] and became increasingly obssessed with religion, asserting that under her new recording contract, she should record one Gospel album a year. Smith eneded up recording two Gospel albums between 1973 and 1976 with God is Abundant (1973) and Connie Smith Sings Hank Williams Gospel (1975).[2] Throughout the decade, she remained a fixture on the country music charts. Although she was not as popular as once had been was not as popular on RCA, most of her singles were able to stay in the Top 20 for most of the decade.[1] Smith had two hits in 1973 with George Richey's "You've Got Me (Right Where You Want Me)" and Dallas Frazier's "Ain't Love a Good Thing." During this time in her career Smith's twangy vocal style was not as apparent as it once was on many of her recordings. This was in songs such as her Top 15 hit cover of Hank Williams' "Why Don't You Love Me." She had further hits with "(Til) I Kissed You" and "So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad)" in 1976, both of which were written by Don Everly.[7]
In 1977 Smith signed with Monument Records. Under the label Smith's material grew increasingly more Pop-sounding, recording everything from Adult Contemporary ballads to upbeat Disco numbers. She had a major hit in 1977 with a cover of Andy Gibb's "I Just Want to Be Your Everything," which went to #14 on the Billboard Country Singles Chart. The follow-up, "Lovin' You Baby," recorded in the style of a Disco song, peaked within the Country Top 40. However her next several singles, "They'll Never Be Another for Me," "Smooth Sailin'," and "Ten Thousand and One" all peaked outside of the Top 40, progressively going into lower positions on the country chart between 1978 and 1979. She released an album in 1978 titled New Horizons, however it did not make an impact either.[8] In 1979, she left Monument and neglected actively performing and touring between for six years, only appearing on the Grand Ole Opry. Over the next six years, she decided to focus on spending time with her family and raising her children.[3] In 1985, Smith made a brief comeback under Epic Records, recording two singles. The first single, "A Far Cry from You" charted at #71, written by then-songwriter Steve Earle.[9] The second single, "Hold Me Back" failed to chart in 1986.
*In 1997, Stuart married legendary Country Music singer Connie Smith. Connie and Marty met back in the 1960s, when he saw Connie performing at one of her concerts, and he told his mother that day, that someday he would marry her. In 1998, he helped produce Smith's comeback album on the Warner Bros. label, simply entitled Connie Smith. He also co-wrote 8 out of 10 songs on the album. Stuart released another album in 1999 called The Pilgrim, along with another unsuccessful single, that failed to even make the Top 40.