Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith

Serving as a bridge between the Western swing sounds of the 1940s and the rockabilly that followed in the 1950s, Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith ranked among country music’s foundational figures. Through his long-running regional television program The Arthur Smith Show, which ran from 1951 to 1982 and became the first syndicated country music series, he shaped the work of successive generations of country performers while also writing and cutting many of the genre’s most enduring compositions. One such piece, the fiery instrumental “Guitar Boogie” recorded with the Tennessee Ramblers, has repeatedly been identified as the earliest rock & roll recording; issued on October 23, 1948, the single moved nearly three million copies and reached number 25 on the Billboard pop charts before Frank Virtue & His Virtuoso Trio reworked it into the Top Five hit “Guitar Boogie Shuffle” in 1959.

Across his career Smith authored more than 500 songs, many of them hits. Co-written in 1955 with bluegrass banjo player Don Reno, “Feudin’ Banjos” was retitled “Dueling Banjos” and placed in the film Deliverance without authorization; Smith successfully sued for infringement. Other compositions of his were recorded by country artists including Johnny Cash and Randy Travis, while Willie Nelson chose Smith’s “Red Headed Stranger” as the title track for one of his most successful albums.

Smith first came to notice in the mid-’40s leading the Dixieland-influenced Crackerjacks as well as the gospel group Crossroads Quartet. He supplemented his performing income by hosting a program on the 100,000-watt station WBT, and in Charlotte, North Carolina, he owned a recording studio where he supervised sessions for artists such as James Brown and Johnny Cash. Smith died at his home in Charlotte in April 2014, two days after his 93rd birthday.