(written by Bill Anderson)Connie Smith (#1, 1964)
In 1963, Connie Smith was a housewife and mother, spending her days and nights doing everything which that routine requires. She had little time for anything else, but on the rare occasions that she was able to get out of the house, she enjoyed singing at local events, fairs or some sort of stage show in the area. These moments spent under a small-time spotlight energized her.
Smith was in her early twenties in August of ’63 when she entered a talent contest at the Frontier Ranch Country Music Park near Columbus, Ohio. It just so happened that one of Nashville’s most-respected singer/songwriters, Bill Anderson, was performing at the venue and, when asked by management if he could spare a little bit of his time and help judge the talent contest between the matinee and nighttime shows, he said he’d be glad to. Connie came on the stage in a little homemade cowgirl outfit with a guitar that was nearly as big as she was! She sang Jean Shepard’s 1955 Top Ten hit “I Thought Of You.”
While Connie was performing, Anderson listened intently as she shaped the song in her unique, inflective, powerful style. During that period of time, most young female upstarts in country music were trying to sound either like Patsy Cline (who had died a few months earlier), or the “Queen Of Country Music,” Kitty Wells. But Smith, Anderson noted, sounded refreshingly different. Her style was as singular as she was beautiful. Leaning back in his chair and taking in the way Connie wrapped her voice around each word, Bill thought that he might have discovered the next great female country music star.
Smith hadn’t expected to meet and visit with Bill Anderson at the venue that day. In fact she didn’t even know he was there. Anderson was already a top star, both as a songwriter and as a recording artist. Several months earlier, Bill had already nailed down one of the year’s top hits with his #1 recording of “Still.” Anderson approached Connie, offered his congratulations on winning the contest, visited with her a while, and then suggested that she come to Nashville and give the music business a shot. Smith was so overwhelmed that she passed off the invitation as just polite chit-chat, but the thing Connie didn’t realize was that Anderson was serious!
Five months later, in January of 1964, Connie went to see Bill at one of his shows in Canton, Ohio. She told Anderson that she had been thinking over the music idea pretty seriously. By March, Bill had pulled some strings and arranged for her to come down to Music City and sing on Ernest Tubb’s “Midnight Jamboree,” a show that aired each week on WSM Radio following the “Grand Ole Opry” broadcast. While she was in town, Anderson had her record a few demo tracks and he took them over to Owen Bradley, his producer at Decca Records. Unfortunately Bradley was convinced that his stable was full. He had recently signed Loretta Lynn, and felt that he just couldn’t use another female singer at that time.
Anderson didn’t give up and arranged a meeting with RCA Victor’s A & R Director Chet Atkins. Chet was attentive and liked very much what he heard on Connie’s demos, but then he dropped his own hammer (which was very similar to Owen’s): “I’ve got three girl singers already here at RCA,” Atkins explained. “Skeeter Davis, Dottie West and Norma Jean, and I can’t even get enough material for them. How am I supposed to find songs for another girl singer?” Taking a deep breath, Anderson took the plunge. He told Chet, “If you sign Connie, I promise you that I will write more than enough songs for her.”
And so it was. Connie signed a long-term contract with RCA Victor on June 24, 1964. Because Atkins found himself too busy with other artists, he assigned staff producer Bob Ferguson to helm Connie’s sessions, which he did for many years until Connie’s departure from RCA in November, 1972. Ironically, Connie announced her decision to leave the label the very same week that Eddy Arnold did the same thing. He had been with RCA for nearly thirty years.
After Smith signed her RCA contract, Anderson remembered the promise he had made to Chet that he would be able to deliver enough material for Connie, so Bill proceeded to get to work. He worked day and night trying to come up with songs for her first session, just three weeks away. Bill’s first two creations proved solid. “I’m Ashamed Of You,” and “The Threshold” were both good songs, but they weren’t as commercial as Anderson thought they needed to be for a hit debut single. Continuing to mull over ideas, he finally came up with a tune he considered perfect. “Once A Day” had one of the best hook lines the master tunesmith ever conceived.
Smith’s first RCA session took place on July 16, 1964. She recorded four songs, the stand-out being “Once A Day,” which was rush-released on August 1st. After “Once A Day” was shipped, radio station request lines lit up immediately. No one knew who this fresh, young singer was, but they couldn’t wait to get her record. Customers came into record stores simply asking for “that ‘once a day’ song.” When the clerk would ask who the artist was, more often than not, the customer wouldn’t know. It was simply unheard of that any female singer could have such huge success so quickly. Connie’s debut reached the #1 position on Billboard’s country singles chart on November 28, 1964 and stayed at the summit for eight weeks, capping one of Music City’s most remarkable “Cinderella” stories.
“Once A Day” set records as the first debut single by a female country artist to top the Billboard chart (which didn’t happen again until Trisha Yearwood’s “She’s In Love With The Boy” in 1991), and the most weeks at #1 (eight) by a female country artist. This latter record held for over 48 years until it was officially broken in 2013 when a bizarre rule change by Billboard Magazine, combined with incorrect marketing, allowed a decidedly non-country piece (in fact, it was pure rock) by pop star Taylor Swift to break Connie’s mark. It’s been said that “all records are made to be broken,” but it’s sad this one ended because of an unfortunate fluke. To me, and all fans of true country music and truly great vocalists, Connie Smith’s “Once A Day” will always be the real record-holder for most weeks at number one by a female country artist. Case closed.
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