Country music legend Connie Smith is celebrating a milestone birthday.
The singer, whose unmistakable voice has been a fixture of traditional country music for more than six decades, turns 85 on Aug. 14.
Longtime Grand Ole Opry announcer Eddie Stubbs famously introduced Smith as the “Rolls Royce of country singers,” and her remarkable career certainly backs up the lofty nickname.
Smith burst onto the country music scene in 1964 with her debut single, “Once a Day,” written by Bill Anderson. The song made history when it became the first debut single by a female country artist to reach No. 1 on the Billboard country chart. Even more remarkably, it stayed there for eight weeks.
That eight-week run established a record for the longest stay at No. 1 by a female country artist that stood for nearly five decades, until Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” finally surpassed it in 2012.
Connie Smith Was Discovered at a Talent Contest
Smith’s journey to Nashville began almost by accident.
In August 1963, the future star entered a talent contest at the Frontier Ranch country music park near Columbus, Ohio. She performed Jean Shepard’s “I Thought of You,” won the contest and took home a grand prize of five silver dollars.
Country singer-songwriter Anderson happened to be one of the judges, and Smith’s voice immediately caught his attention.
“At first I thought they were playing a record and she was lip sync’ing it,” Anderson later recalled in for the 4-disc Smith retrospective box set Born to Sing.
The following year, Anderson helped Smith get to Nashville, where she performed on Ernest Tubb’s Midnite Jamboree. Loretta Lynn was impressed enough to introduce herself afterward and offer the newcomer some career advice.
Smith subsequently recorded demos of Anderson’s songs, which eventually reached legendary RCA producer Chet Atkins. After hearing her voice, Atkins offered her a recording contract. She signed with RCA Victor on June 24, 1964.
Less than a month later, Smith recorded “Once a Day.”
‘Once a Day’ Was Only the Beginning
Smith followed her historic debut with a remarkable string of country hits, including “Then and Only Then,” “Ain’t Had No Lovin’,” “Cincinnati, Ohio,” “I Never Once Stopped Loving You” and “Just One Time.” She ultimately scored another 19 top-10 country hits after “Once a Day.”
She also joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1965, beginning one of the longest associations in the institution’s history.
But perhaps the best measure of Smith’s voice is what other legendary singers have said about it.
George Jones named Smith his favorite female singer, while Elvis Presley owned several of her albums and reportedly intended to record her version of “The Wonders You Perform.”
Dolly Parton offered an even more colorful assessment for the “Born to Sing” box set.
“You know, there’s really only three female singers in the world: Barbra Streisand, Linda Ronstadt, and Connie Smith,” Parton said. “The rest of us are only pretending.”
Smith’s accomplishments eventually earned her induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2012. She has also received 11 Grammy nominations and was named one of Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Country Artists of All Time, with the outlet praising the “overwhelming power and elegance of her rafter-rattling” voice.
And Smith hasn’t simply become a figure from country’s past. In 2021, she released The Cry of the Heart, her first album of new material in a decade, followed in 2024 by Love, Prison, Wisdom and Heartaches.
More than 60 years after “Once a Day” made country music history, the “Rolls-Royce of country singers” remains one of the genre’s most celebrated voices.
Related: Grand Ole Opry’s Only Female Canadian Member Turns 58
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