![]() The songs made Smith a well-known name in country music. 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". ![]() In 1951, his song " Let's Live a Little" was a big hit, reaching number two on the Billboard country chart. In 1950, Smith was signed to a recording contract with Columbia Records by producer Don Law. 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. He returned to WROL and played string bass for country singers Molly O'Day and Skeets Williamson, and began his singing career. Īfter graduating from high school, he served in the U.S. 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. At age 15, he started performing in a band called Kitty Dibble and Her Dude Ranch Ranglers. ![]() He sold seed to pay for guitar lessons as a teenager. ![]() 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.
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