Her last charting single came in 1986 with "Love Me All Over," which peaked at No.
She also recorded for Sound Factory Records during the early '80s and scored her last Top 20 in 1981 with "Cheatin's a Two-Way Street". The song "What a Lie" from that album became a Top 20 country hit for Smith, peaking at No. In 1979, Smith made a successful comeback album on Cyclone Records called Girl Hero. In 1976, after Mega Records closed its doors, Smith signed with Elektra Records and scored with several hits, the biggest of these were "Sunday School to Broadway" (1976), "Loving Arms" (1977), "I Can't Stop Loving You" (1977), and "Days That End in Y" (1977). Smith would continue to score Top 40 country hits like "The Rainbow in Daddy's Eyes" (1974) and "Long Black Veil" (1974). In 1972, "I've Got to Have You" was a successful country hit, and it even broke onto the pop charts at No. She reached the Top 10 of Billboard's Hot Country Singles Top 10 twice after the success of "Help Me Make It Through the Night" with "Then You Walk In" (1971) and Merle Haggard's "Today I Started Loving You Again" (1975), her last Top Ten hit. Smith continued to have success with the Mega Records label until 1975. Smith would continue to have an ongoing friendship with Jennings and Nelson for the rest of her life. In 1973, Sammi moved to Dallas, Texas, with Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson to become a country "outlaw". "A crossover smash, 'Help Me Make It Through the Night' signaled country's belated arrival in the rock and soul era."Īfter the success of her hit, Smith continued to have more success on the country charts. "The dynamic country soul of the recording - thanks, for starters, to producer Jim Malloy and arranger Bill Walker - revealed the influences of a generation of Nashville music makers who had grown up listening not only to country music but also to rock & roll, jazz, pop, R&B, and even classical music," they wrote. 1 in their book Heartaches by the Number: Country Music's 500 Greatest Singles. Smith would still remain with the "outlaw" sound throughout the 1970s.Ĭritics David Cantwell and Bill Friskics-Warren called "Help Me Make It Through the Night" "a watershed event in the history of Nashville and country music" and placed it at No. However, "outlaw country" would be short-lived, with country taking on a distinctly pop cast by the end of the '70s. At this time, country was moving in two directions: "outlaw" and a more mainstream pop sound. She had been one of the rare women in the "outlaw country" movement sweeping country music in the 1970s. "Help Me Make It Through the Night" was Sammi Smith's career hit and the one that made her famous. The song made Smith and Kristofferson household names in the music business. In 1972, Sammi Smith won a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance that year, and Kristofferson took songwriting awards. After Smith's hit, the song was later covered by Gladys Knight and the Pips and Elvis Presley both versions achieved more modest chart success. The song had been composed by Kris Kristofferson, only a songwriter at the time, who had recorded the only other version of the song. At first, record companies were uncomfortable with the song's honest sexuality, which was new for country music, but DJs tested the song and the response from listeners was enormous.
It sold over two million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. Finally, in 1971, she struck gold with "Help Me Make It Through the Night". In 1970, Smith signed with a new label Mega Records and her first hit for her new label was called "He's Everywhere", which made the top 25 on the country charts. The song showed Smith's potential as a country music powerhouse. Her first minor country hit was in 1968, titled "So Long, Charlie Brown, Don't Look for Me Around". When Johnny Cash learned of her talent, he helped her get signed with Columbia Records. After Grant's discovery she moved to Nashville, Tennessee. In 1967 Johnny Cash's bass player Marshall Grant discovered her singing in the Someplace Else Night Club in downtown Oklahoma City. They had one child, musician Waylon Payne, whose godfather is country legend Waylon Jennings. In 1971 she married her second husband, Willie Nelson's guitarist Jody Payne. She would eventually have two more marriages.
She was only fifteen when she married Steel Guitar Hall of Fame and Night Club Operator Bobby White. She dropped out of school at the age of eleven and began to sing professionally in nightclubs. Sammi Smith was born in Orange County, California, in 1943 but spent her childhood in Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, and Colorado.