Connie Smith’s vocals deemed a national treasure

Connie Smith’s debut single “Once a Day” reached No. 1 on the Billboard country singles chart in November 1964 and remained at the top for a record eight weeks, a first then for a female.

That hit song was one of 25 additions to the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress last month, a prestigious listing that deems treasures worthy of preservation for all time.

Smith’s collaboration with country music legend and Neshoba County native Marty Stuart in the 1990s turned romantic, they married and the last few years the Congress of Country Music downtown in the former Ellis has become a project.

Smith has been called one of the most underrated vocalists in country music history.

“I never dreamed when I walked into RCA’s Studio B in Nashville on July 16, 1964, to make my first record that a song from that session called 'Once a Day' would become a hit,” Smith said. 

“In the wake of its success, that recording received many honors and the song has endured. But, for ‘Once a Day’ to be recognized by the Library of Congress and to have it listed in the nation’s National Recording Registry is indeed the ultimate honor. This blesses me, and I am extremely grateful.”

Dolly Parton once said, “There’s really only three female singers in the world: Streisand, Ronstadt and Connie Smith. The rest of us are only pretending.”

“Once a Day,” written by Bill Anderson, describes a woman who has not gotten over her previous lover. Although the woman explains that she has limited her grieving to “once a day,” it is later found out that she is grieving, “once a day, every day, all day long.”

Other additions in the National Recording Registry this year included “The Rainbow Connection” by Kermit the Frog, “Celebration” by Kool & the Gang and “When the Saints Go Marching In” by Louis Armstrong & and his Orchestra. 

A 1962 recording of “Aida,” featuring Laurel native Leontyne Price in her signature role and with her voice in her prime was added.

“Once a Day” became Smith's biggest hit and was nominated at the Grammy Awards for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. 

In March of 1965, Smith’s first self-titled album was released on RCA Victor Records and spent 30 weeks in the Top Country Albums Chart overall with seven weeks at No. 1.

It produced three country charting hits including “Tiny Blue Transistor Radio” and “Then and Only Then” which peaked at No. 4.

Smith’s success continued through 1960s and mid-1970s with 19 more Top-10 hits.

She took time off to raise five children and became more involved in her church.

Smith and Stuart would first meet at her 1970 Choctaw Indian Fair performance where an 11-year-old Marty Stuart fan told his mother Hilda, “I’m going to marry her someday!” 

Smith said having her recording of “Once a Day” included in the registry is an honor. 

“My work is now among icons like Kermit the Frog’s ‘The Rainbow Connection’ and Louis Armstrong’s ‘When the Saints Go Marching In,’” Smith told the Democrat. 

“I am so thankful to have this as a legacy for my kids. I never planned for my career to be in singing, but I really believe it was what God wanted me to do, and this profession is what led to me meeting Marty.” 

Smith’s still unnamed forthcoming album, her 54th, is expected to be released this fall on Fat Possum Records.

Hargus “Pig” Robins, who played piano for “Once a Day,” is playing piano on the new album. 

“Pig has been in a lot of my songs and Marty’s songs over the years,” Smith said. “He is simply amazing at what he does.”

“Once a Day” was produced by Bob Ferguson, a key shaper of the Nashville sound of the 1960s and ’70s, including Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.” 

Recorded at RCA’s famous Studio B in Nashville, Smith was backed by session musicians and members of Anderson’s band, The Po’ Boys, including one new player, steel guitarist Weldon Myrick, who would go on to become a Nashville legend himself. 

Ferguson wanted the steel guitar to be right up front and Myrick delivered, so much so that Smith credits Myrick with “creating the Connie Smith sound.” 

The now late Ferguson would go on to develop a strong connection with the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and move with his family to Neshoba County as Tribal Historian until his death in 2001.

Songs are selected for the National Recording Registry because they have been deemed treasures worthy of preservation for all time based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage, according to the Library of Congress website at www.loc.gov.

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said this year’s entries were selected from approximately 900 public nominations to bring the total number of recordings in the registry to 575 “representing a small portion of the national library’s vast recorded sound collection of nearly 4 million items.”

To learn more about “Once a Day” and other registry selections, visit the Library of Congress National Recording Registry website at www.loc.gov.