Carl Smith Discography

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  Carl Smith
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  Carl Smith`s Best
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  Let`s Live A Little
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  Sentimental Songs
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  Smith`s The Name
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  Softly And Tenderly
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  Sunday Down South

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, the hometown of another leading country singer, Roy Acuff. During Smith`s childhood, he idolized Acuff, Ernest Tubb, and Bill Monroe. In his teenage years, he taught himself to play the guitar. According to legend, he bought his first guitar with money 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 had learned to play the string bass, and spent his summer vacation working at the radio station WROL 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 also started singing at this time. One his colleagues at the station sent an acetate of his singing to WSM (the radio station of the Grand Ole Opry) in Nashville, Tennessee. WSM soon signed Smith to a contract, and 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.

The year 1950 was unsuccessful for Smith, but in 1951 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". These songs made Smith a household name in country music.

In 1951, Smith also met and married June Carter (who later married Johnny Cash and became June Carter Cash). June was the daughter of Maybelle Carter, one-third of the legendary country band the Carter Family. In 1955 the couple had a daughter, Rebecca Smith, who later became known as Carlene Carter, a country singer in her own right.

During 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, in 1955. Some of his songs had sharp edges to them, had fast phrasing, and a strong drumbeat: these elements helped to make them hits.

They were similar to rockabilly material that was being recorded and making the charts back in the mid-50s. In some ways it made Smith`s music closer to rock & roll than country. Some of his songs did, in fact, make 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, 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.

In 1957, Smith and June Carter divorced. That same year, he married country music singer Gol