An Overnight Success
Fast-forwarding to adulthood, Smith won an Ohio talent contest in 1963, singing Jean Shephard’s “I Thought of You.” Bill Anderson caught the winning performance and invited the promising young talent to Nashville. The following year, Smith performed with Anderson on Ernest Tubb’s Midnight Jamboree program and recorded the demos that’d ultimately land her a deal with RCA Records.
At her first Chet Atkins-produced session, Smith recorded Anderson’s “Once a Day.” It became an instant number one hit, propelling her from meager beginnings to instant stardom.
It wasn’t all wine and roses from there. Smith hated unsavory elements of the music business, from the unscrupulous behavior of DJs and club owners she’d encounter on the road to her favorite country stars’ self-destructive habits. Past pains, professional frustration, and personal life struggles put real feeling behind such country hits as “Then and Only Then” (1965), “I Can’t Remember” (1965), “If I Talk to Him” (1965), “Nobody But a Fool (Would Love You)” (1966), “Ain’t Had No Lovin” (1966), “Cincinnati, Ohio” (1967), “Ribbon of Darkness” (1969), “You and Your Sweet Love (1969), “I Never Once Stopped Loving You” (1970), “Just One Time” (1971), “If It Ain’t Love (Let’s Leave It Alone)” (1972) and others.