b. Jewel Fay Smith, 5 August 1943, Orange, California, USA, d. 12 February 2005, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA. As her father was a serviceman, the family moved around, and when aged only 11, Smith was singing pop standards in nightclubs. She was discovered in 1967 by Johnny Cash’s bass player, Marshall Grant, and signed with Columbia Records. Minor US country hits followed with ‘So Long, Charlie Brown, Don’t Look For Me Around’, ‘Why Do You Do Me Like You Do’, and ‘Brownsville Lumberyard’. She toured with Waylon Jennings and befriended a janitor at Columbia, Kris Kristofferson. Her warm, husky version of his song ‘Help Me Make It Through The Night’ sold two million copies, topped the country charts, and was voted the Country Music Association’s Single Of The Year for 1971. Ironically, her record label, Mega, had been formed as a tax write-off and the last thing the owner wanted was a hit record. Smith had further Top 20 country hits with ‘Then You Walk In’, ‘For The Kids’, ‘I’ve Got To Have You’, ‘The Rainbow In Daddy’s Eyes’ and ‘Today I Started Loving You Again’, but she never topped ‘Help Me Make It Through The Night’, because, as she says, ‘It was like following a Rembrandt with a kindergarten sketch’.
Smith wrote ‘Sand-Covered Angels’, recorded by Conway Twitty, and ‘Cedartown, Georgia’ by Waylon Jennings. At Elektra Records in the late 70s, she recorded the hits ‘As Long As There’s A Sunday’, ‘Sunday School To Broadway’, ‘Loving Arms’, ‘I Can’t Stop Loving You’, ‘Days That End In ‘Y’’ and ‘It Just Won’t Feel Like Cheating (With You)’, before enjoying further success on the Cyclone label with ‘What A Lie’ and ‘The Letter’. In the early 80s Smith relocated to the Sound Factory imprint, and despite a Top 20 placing for ‘Cheatin’s A Two Way Street’ in 1981 she had only limited US country chart success. Smith’s former husband was Willie Nelson’s guitarist Jody Payne and, being part Apache herself, she adopted two Apache children and formed an all American Indian band, Apache Spirit. In 1978 she set up the Sammi Smith Scholarship for Apache Advance Education, the aim being to increase the number of Apache lawyers and doctors.
