Connie Smith

Born:: August 14, 1941, she's 70 and American.
Birthname:: Constance June Meador.
Snapshot:: An Artist with 23 releases, and credited twice on others' music. 17 collaborations and 1 musical relative.

Constance June Meador, professionally known as Connie Smith (born August 14, 1941 in Elkhart, Indiana, USA) is an American country music artist, who had major success in the 1960s and 70s. She was discovered by country artist, Bill Anderson in 1963 and signed with RCA Victor Records the following year. Within less than a year, Smith moved from being an Ohio housewife to a country artist with the success of her 1964 eight-week number one single, "Once a Day." The song was the first debut single by a female country artist to reach #1 on the Billboard country chart. To date, "Once a Day" still holds the record for the most weeks spent as number one by a female country artist.

Following "Once a Day"'s success, Anderson and songwriter, Dallas Frazier helped to write a string of hits for Smith that would continue into the later half of the 1960s and into the 1970s, including "Then and Only Then," "I Can't Remember," "Cincinnati, Ohio," and "Tiny Blue Transistor Radio." She would later record for Columbia Records in 1973, which allowed her to record more Gospel material. She left the label three years later and signed with Monument. She went into semi-retirement shortly afterwards, but continued recording for Epic between 1985 and 1986 and went back into semi-retirement, until she revived her career in 1998 with a self-titled album. She has recorded over 30 studio albums, which also included three collaborations and five albums of Gospel music. Although Smith has not been fully active as an artist since the late 1970s, she has been revered by many artists in country music as one of the best and most underrated female vocalists in the music industry. Artists such as Dolly Parton and George Jones have since cited her as one of their favorite artists.

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