In the past, Dolly Parton has been famously quoted as saying, “There’s really only three female singers in the world: Streisand, Ronstadt and Connie Smith. The rest of us are only pretending.” That is a pretty lofty statement but one that many vocalists have agreed with through the years. One such singer who has professed her love for Connie and her music multiple times is Martina McBride, a superb vocalist in her own right.

Martina has performed with her fellow Grand Ole Opry member while playing the historic show. Before one such occasion in 2008, McBride shared, “When I did my Timeless record, there was no doubt that I was gonna do one of [Connie’s] songs on that record and so I got out ‘Once a Day’ and I listened to it and I sang it over and over, trying to sing it exactly like [her] and it’s very obviously that I cannot do that, but it was just a thrill for me to cut that song.”

Before she made her mark by impressing her country contemporaries and those artists who followed, Connie was an Ohio housewife and mother who appeared from time to time singing at local events. But, in 1963, she caught the ear of singer-songwriter Bill Anderson who had just come off a career record with his seven-week chart-topper “Still.” He encouraged Smith to come to Nashville and even invited her to perform as a guest on the Ernest Tubb Midnight Jamboree. Connie took him up on the offer and made her debut on the show in March 1964. In May, she returned to Nashville to record demos of some new songs that Bill had just written. Anderson’s manager proceeded to take the tape of the session to RCA Victor and by the following month, Smith was signed to the record label under the wing of Chet Atkins.

For her initial recording session under her contract in July 1964, Connie hit it out of the park with “Once a Day,” which became her signature song. The tale of heartbreak stayed at number one for a total of eight weeks and she became an instant star and record-holder since she was the first female artist to have her debut single top the chart.  The following year, Smith became a member of the Opry where she is a constant fixture even today. She also starred in several of the country cult movies that were in fashion during the 1960s including Las Vegas Hillbillies (1966) and The Road to Nashville (1967), all the while racking up the hits with songs like “Nobody But a Fool (Would Love You),” “Ain’t Had No Lovin’” and “The Hurtin’s All Over.”

Time away from her family took its toll on Connie and the lights of success were shining a little too brightly, so in 1979, she decided to stop touring and recording and shifted her focus to her five children. In the mid-1990s with her children grown and off on their own, Smith returned to music and made the life-changing decision of working with Marty Stuart on her 1996’s self-titled album. Their working relationship morphed into a romantic courtship and the couple married in 1997.

Today, Connie continues to release music with her most recent work being 2003’s Love Never Fails, a collection of Gospel songs recorded with Barbara Fairchild and Sharon White. Smith performs on the Grand Ole Opry regularly and is a vital part of her husband’s weekly television series The Marty Stuart Show on RFD-TV.

Image courtesy of Marty Stuart

Nikita Palmer for Citadel Digital © 2010

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