Smith (born March 15, 1927 in Maynardville, Tennessee) is an American country music singer. Known as Mister Country, Smith is the former husband of June Carter Cash and drinking buddy of Johnny Cash. He racked up a string of country hits in the 1950s, and was one of country's most successful male artists during that decade.
] Early life and rise to fame
Carl Smith was one of Country Music's most popular singers during the 1950s. Over the course of the decade, he racked up 30 Top 10 hits, and his success continued well into the 1970s, where he had a charting single every year except one.
Smith was born in Tennessee in 1927. He grew up in the town of Maynardville, which was the hometown of another Country singer, Roy Acuff. During Smith's childhood, he idolized Acuff, Ernest Tubb, and Bill Monroe. In his teenage years, he taught himself how to play the guitar. According to legend, he bought his first guitar with money he earned by selling flower seeds.[1] At age 15, he started performing in a band, called Kitty Dibble and Her Dude Ranch Ranglers. By the age of 17, he learned how to play the string bass, and spent his summer vacation, working at a radio station in Knoxville, Tennessee. After graduating from high school, he briefly served in the U.S. Navy. He went back to the radio station (WROL) and played string bass for Country singers, Molly O Day and Skeets Williamson. He started to sing too at this time. One his colleagues at the station sent an acetate of Smith singing. It was sent to WSM (the radio station of the Grand Ole Opry) in Nashville, Tennessee, and WSM soon signed Smith to a contract, ans he was soon working for WSM and the Grand Ole Opry.
In 1950, Smith was finally signed to a recording contract with Columbia Records by producer Don Law.
[edit] The height of his career in the 1950s
The year 1950 showed no success for Smith, but 1951 was the year he made it big, when his song "Let's Live a Little" was a big hit. The song just missed topping the Country charts. His career then took off and during the course of 1951, he racked up three other hits, including "If the Teardrops Were Pennies" and his first #1 hit called "Let Old Mother Nature Have Her Way". The songs made Smith a household name in country music.
In 1951, Smith also met and married June Carter (who would later became June Carter Cash when she married Johnny Cash). She was the daughter of Maybelle Carter, who was part of the legendary Country band the Carter Family. In 1955 the couple had a daughter, Carlene Carter, who would later become a Country singer in her own right.
Throughout the rest of the 1950s, Smith would make regular appearances on Billboard's Country charts, racking up many more hits, including 30 Top 10 hits. His biggest hits include "Loose Talk", "Wicked Lies", "Hey Joe!", and "You Are the One". He only had five #1 hits though in his career. "Loose Talk" was his last #1, when it hit #1 in 1955. Some of his songs had sharp edges to it, had fast words, and a strong drumbeat to them that made them hits. It was even in fact similar to that of some rockabilly material that was being recorded and made hits back in the mid-50s. In some ways it made Smith closer to rock & roll than country. Some of his songs, in fact made the pop charts. His biggest pop entry was the song "Ten Thousand Drums" in 1959, which went to #43 on the pop charts, coming close to making the Top 40.
In 1956, as a way of changing pace, Smith quit the Grand Ole Opry, and moved out to California and appeared in several movies. Soon after he joined the Phillip Morris Country Music Show, and spent more than a year touring the United States. He soon appeared on the Ozark Jubilee show, hosted by Red Foley. His success continued as a country singer during this time also.
In 1957, Smith and June Carter divorced. That same year, he married country music singer Goldie Hill, who was a successful country singer herself, best known for the #1 hit "I Let the Stars Get In My Eyes". The couple remained married until Goldie's death in 2005. By the late 50s, Smith's success began to dwindle on the country charts, and soon his on-going string of Top 10s soon turned into Top 20 hits.
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