Carl Smith - Back Up Buddy (1954)

US C&W Charts No. 2 (01.05.1954) 16 Weeks

Carl Milton Smith (March 15, 1927 – January 16, 2010) was an American country music singer. Known as "Mister Country," he was one of the genre's most successful male artists during the 1950s, scoring 30 top-10 Billboard hits (21 of which were consecutive). Smith's success continued well into the 1970s, when he had a charting single every year but one. Smith was married to June Carter (with whom he had daughter Carlene) and later Goldie Hill. In 2003, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Smith was born in Maynardville, Tennessee, in 1927 (the same town in which fellow country icon Roy Acuff had been born), and started to aspire to a musical career after hearing the Grand Ole Opry on the radio. He sold seed to pay for guitar lessons as a teenager. At age 15, he started performing in a band called Kitty Dibble and Her Dude Ranch Ranglers. By age 17, he had learned to play the string bass and spent his summer vacation working at WROL-AM in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he performed on Cas Walker's radio show.

After graduating from high school, he served in the U.S. Navy from 1944–47. He returned to WROL and played string bass for country singers Molly O'Day and Skeets Williamson, and began his singing career. A colleague at the station sent an acetate disc recording of Smith to WSM-AM and the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, and WSM soon signed him. In 1950, Smith was signed to a recording contract with Columbia Records by producer Don Law.
In 1951, his song "Let's Live a Little" was a big hit, reaching number two on the Billboard country chart. During 1951, he had three other hits, including "If the Teardrops Were Pennies" and his first number-one hit, "Let Old Mother Nature Have Her Way". The songs made Smith a well-known name in country music. His band, the Tunesmiths, featured steel guitarist Johnny Silbert, who added an element of Western swing.
In 1952, Smith married June Carter, daughter of Maybelle Carter of the Carter Family. It was the first marriage for both. In 1955, the couple had a daughter, Rebecca Carlene Smith, who later became known as Carlene Carter, a country singer in her own right.


In his later years, Smith lived on a 500-acre (2.0 km2) horse farm in Franklin, Tennessee (south of Nashville), where he died on January 16, 2010, at the age of 82. His wife Goldie had died five years prior. He was survived by two sons, Carl, Jr. and Larry Dean, and two daughters, Carlene and Lori Lynn.


Carl Smith (* 15. März 1927 in Maynardville, Tennessee; † 16. Januar 2010 bei Nashville, Tennessee) war ein US-amerikanischer Countrysänger.
Smith stammt aus der gleichen Gegend wie Roy Acuff, einer der großen Country-Stars der vierziger Jahre. Vom ersten selbstverdienten Geld kaufte er sich eine Gitarre. Seine ersten Radioauftritte hatte er bei WROL in Knoxville. Nach einem anderthalbjährigen Dienst in der US-Navy kehrte er zunächst zu WROL zurück. 1948 arbeitete er als Bassist für Skeets Williamson und Molly O’Day. Ein Jahr später wechselte er nach Nashville zur dortigen WSM-Station. Kurz darauf wurde er von der Grand Ole Opry unter Vertrag genommen.
1950 erhielt Smith von Columbia Records einen Schallplattenvertrag. Bereits seine zweite Single Let’s Live a Little schaffte es 1951 auf Platz 2 der Country-Charts. Der Sänger, der trotz seiner eher weichen Stimme Honky Tonk singt, hatte im selben Jahr weitere Erfolge, darunter mit Let Old Mother Nature Have Her Way seinen ersten Nummer-eins-Hit in den Country-Charts. Es war der Beginn einer langen Erfolgssträhne; in den fünfziger Jahren hatte er 31 Top-Ten-Platzierungen

1952 heiratete er die aus der bekannten Carter Family stammende June Carter, mit der er unter anderem das Duett Times A-Wastin’ sang. Aus der nach vier Jahren geschiedenen Ehe ging mit Carlene Carter eine weitere Country-Sängerin hervor; June Carter heiratete später Johnny Cash. 1956 beendete Smith sein Engagement an der Grand Ole Opry und zog nach Kalifornien, um dort einige Filmrollen zu übernehmen. Er schloss sich der Philipp Morris Country Music Show an, die in einer achtzehnmonatigen Tournee die gesamte USA bereiste. 1957 heiratete er die Country-Sängerin Goldie Hill, mit der er drei Kinder hatte. Hill starb im Februar 2005 an Krebs