CARL SMITH
Born: March 15, 1927, Maynardsville, Tennessee
Died: January 16, 2010, Nashville, Tennessee
When Carl Smith, known as the Country Gentleman and Mr. Country, retired in 1977, he was one of the most successful Country
singers around. For over twenty-five years, he was just about the best Honky-Tonk singer around, and he probably could have
continued for many more years. In addition, he had the looks and build that nowadays would have qualified him for the
description of being a "hunk." However, none of the hunks of today had the voice of Carl Smith.
Carl was exposed to Country from a very early age, and sold flower seeds to get enough money to buy his first guitar and cut
grass to pay for the lessons. He entered his first talent contest by the time he was age 13 and at age 15, he started performing in
a band called Kitty Dibble and Her Dude Ranch Ranglers. In 1944, while still at high school, he gained his first radio experience
courtesy of Cas Walker at WROL in Knoxville. After graduation, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and over an eighteen month period,
had four tours in the Philippines, including time served aboard the U.S.S. Admiral Sims. After he left the service in August 1946,
he returned to WROL and for a while played guitar in the Brewster Brothers Band.
In June 1947, Carl and banjo player Hoke Jenkins moved to Asheville, North Carolina, where they played for nothing on WWNC.
They survived by playing local live bookings. Carl moved to WGAC Augusta, Georgia, in February 1948, but the financial
shortcomings forced him to return to Knoxville. The following year, Carl became bass player in Skeets Williamson's band. He also
occasionally sang, but the star of the show was Skeets' sister, Molly O'Day. However, the band soon moved on to Greensboro,
North Carolina, and Carl was out of work. Lady luck stepped in and Carl was hired as Archie Campbell's bass player (and
occasional singer) on his WROL shows, Country Playhouse and The Dinner Bell.
While with Archie, Carl was demo-recorded by Speedy Krise, and the result was sent to Troy Martin, who was at the time music
publisher Peer International's man in Nashville. Martin, a man who could spot talent a mile away, recognized it in Carl's singing,
and arranged for Carl to audition for Jack Stapp, General Manager of the Grand Ole Opry. Carl first appeared on the Opry, in
March 1950, as a guest of Hank Williams on the Duck Head Work Clothes Show, singing Jimmie Davis' I Just Dropped in to Say
Goodbye.
Then Carl hit a brick wall. Stapp said he would only sign Carl as a member of the Opry if Don Law, head of Columbia Records'
Country Division, would sign him to a record deal. Then Law said he would sign Carl if Stapp hired him and so it went on until
Stapp broke the impasse in May. He offered Carl a six-day-a-week morning show and an appearance on the Opry about every
third Saturday. Immediately, Law signed Carl to Columbia and took him into the recording studio.
However, success didn't come immediately and both Stapp and Law took time to develop what they both considered a very fine
talent. It was from his second recording session that Carl hit the jackpot. Let's Live a Little was released in 1951, and reached the
Top 3 on the Country charts and stayed around for five months. He followed it up with a double-sided smash, Mr. Moon (a song
co-written by Carl) and If Teardrops Were Pennies, both of which made the Top 10. Carl was befriended by both Hank Williams
and Ernest Tubb, and toured with E.T. and the Texas Troubadours. E.T. also assisted in finding material for Smith to record, while
Hank became a very close friend.
Shortly after, Carl put together his own backing band, the Tunesmiths, whose line-up, by 1952, was Grady Martin (lead guitar),
Sammy Pruett (guitar), Johnny Sibert (steel guitar), Junior Huskey (bass) and Jimmy Smith (rhythm guitar). With his original hits,
Carl Smith trademarked his highly emotional style, which was characterized by Sibert's wailing steel guitar. Carl wrapped up 1951
with his first No. l record, Let Old Mother Nature Have Her Way. The single stayed at the top for 8 weeks out of a chart stay of 33
weeks, and sold over 900,000 copies.
He started 1952 with back-to-back No. 1's, (When You Feel Like You're in Love) Don't Just Stand There and the Louvin Brothers'
song Are You Teasing Me. The former stayed at the top for eight weeks. The flip-side of the latter, It's a Lovely, Lovely World,
also became a Top 5 chart entry. During April that year, he recorded some Gospel material on which he was supported by Mother
Maybelle Carter and the Carter Sisters. Three months after the session, Carl married June Carter. He closed out 1952 with a most
appropriately titled Our Honeymoon.
The following year was also highly successful. Carl started off with That's the Kind of Love I'm Looking For, which found brief
favor on the jukeboxes and had a 1-week stay in the Top 10. He followed with another double-sided Top 10 hit, Just Wait Till I Get
You Alone and This Orchid Means Goodbye. This was followed by more of same when the coupling Trademark/Do I Like It? went
Top 10, with the A-side reaching the Top 3. He then had another No.1, Hey Joe. This single, which stayed at the top for eight
weeks out of a six-month chart residency, was written by Boudleaux Bryant and marked the continuation of an association
between Carl and the Bryants that started with Just Wait 'Til I Get You Alone. Carl finished the year with the Top 10 single,
Satisfaction Guaranteed.
Carl continued with his chart success throughout 1954 with Dog-Gone It, Baby I'm in Love, which reached the Top 10. His other
hits of the year were Back Up Buddy (Top 3), Go, Boy, Go and his fifth No. 1, Loose Talk The flip-side of the latter, More Than
Anything Else in the World, reached the Top 5. That year, Carl added Buddy Harmon on drums to the Tunesmiths and set up his
own Driftwood Music publishing company.
His hits during 1955 were Kisses Don't Lie (Top 5)/No I Don't Believe I Will, Wait a Little Longer, Please, Jesus (Top 15), There She
Goes (Top 3)/Old Lonesome Times, Don't Tease Me (Top 15), You're Free to Go/1 Feel Like Cryin' (both sides Top 10).
In 1956, Carl Smith decided to leave the Opry, so as to allow time for movie work and additional bookings on Saturday nights, and
indeed, he did appear in two movies, The Badge of Marshal Brennan and Buffalo Guns. During the year, he had I've Changed,
which just failed to make the Top 10, followed by You Are the One/Doorstep to Heaven, a Top 5 coupling, and Before I Met
You/Wicked Lies, a Top 10 pairing.
During 1957, Carl commenced an eighteen-month connection with the Philip Morris Country Music Show, which toured around
most of the U.S. Rock'n'roll had started to make an impact on the success of Country performers, but in Carl's case, this took
longer than others. Although his first record of the year, You Can't Hurt Me Anymore, only reached the Top 15, the follow-up,
Why, Why, climbed to the Top 3. By 1957, Carl and June had divorced and now he married a lady who could have been one of the
major female stars of Country music, Goldie Hill.
Your Name Is Beautiful, Carl's first release of 1958, not only reached the Top 10 on the Country charts, it also got to the Top 80 on
the Pop charts. However, the next single, Walking the Slow Walk, only got to the Top 30. After the Philip Morris Show ended, in
1959, Carl became a member of the Ozark Jubilee TV out of Springfield, Missouri.
From here on, only two singles reached the Top 10, Ten Thousand Drums (1959), which also reached the Top 50 on the Pop
charts and the 1967 record, Deep Water. His other hits, The Best Years of Your Life, It's All My Heartache and Tomorrow Night
(1959), Make the Watermill Roll and Cut Across Shorty (both 1960) and You Make Me Live Again and Never Lie (both 1961). In
1961, he became one of the hosts on ABC-TV's Four Star Jubilee.
Carl's hits between 1962 and 1964 were Air Mail to Heaven (Top 15)/Things That Mean the Most and The Best Dressed Beggar (In
Town) (Top 20) (both 1962), Live for Tomorrow, In the Back Room Tonight (Top 20), I Almost Forgot Her Today/Triangle (Top 20)
(all 1963) and The Pillow That Whispers (Top 20), Take My Ring Off Your Finger (Top 20) and Lonely Girl (Top 20)/When It's Over
(all 1964). Carl was invited by Canadian Television Network (CTV) to host the first three episodes of their 1964 Country music
series. It proved so popular that it went on to run, as Carl Smith's Country Music Hall, for 190 weekly episodes, over a five-year
period. The show was syndicated
across Canada and to several U.S. TV stations. Carl was voted the No. l Country star in
Canada.
Carl stayed with Columbia for twenty-three years, and between 1965 and 1973, he racked
another 20 chart entries, the most successful being She Called Me Baby, Be Good to Her and Let's Walk Away Strangers (all
1965), Deep Water (1967), Foggy River (1968), Faded Love and Winter Roses, Good Deal, Lucille (Top 20), I Love You Because
(Top 15) and Heartbreak Avenue (all 1969), Pull My String and Wind Me Up (Top 20) and How I Love Those Love Songs (both
1970), Red Door and Don't Say You’re Mine (both 1971). While with Columbia, Carl sold around 15 million records.
In 1974, Carl semi-retired from performing and recording, but in 1975, he signed with Hickory Records with whom his most
successful single was the Top 70, The Way I Lose My Mind, in 1975. Carl decided to retire in 1977 (Goldie had done so back in
1957 and 1969). He settled doen on the 500-acre ranch in Franklin, Tennessee that he had bought back in 1957. Here he raised
and trained award-winning quarter-horses.
Carl came out of retirement on three occasions. First, in 1978, to appear at Wembley Festival in England; second, in 1980, to
record an album for Gusto; and finally, in 1983, for a benefit concert, as a favor to Billy Grammer. He has left a legacy of recorded
jewels that would only have been enhanced by a duet album with Goldie Hill. He has also passed on his genes to his very
talented daughter Carlene Carter.
In 2003, Carl was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Two years late, Goldie sadly passed away. The last time I saw Carl
was on February 4, 2009 when he introduced Roy Clark at Roy’s Country Music Hall of Fame induction. With his passing, a true
legend has left us. I will now get out my Carl Smith albums and enjoy this Country music master. Our thoughts go out to his family
at this sad time.
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