CARL "Mr. Country" SMITH (also known as "The Gentleman Honky-Tonker") was one of the genre's most consistent hitmakers of the 1950s, notching up more than thirty Top 10 C&W records. Although he'd emerged from a Honky-Tonk background, Smith became one of the first Country singers to experiment with a more "cosmopolitan" style, which smoothed out a lot of the rougher edges and took him, musically, away from diehard traditional towards the late 50s Nashville Countrypolitan sound. His chart success continued well into the late 1970s, when he abruptly retired from singing to raise a family and breed horses, on his 500-acre ranch in Franklin, Tennessee. This compilation, which includes five #1s and more than a dozen further Top 5 records, features all but two of Carl's Top 10 Country hits between 1951-62 (we had to omit a couple of top tenners, as they simply wouldn't all fit).
4 (When You Feel Like You're in Love) Don't Just Stand There
5 Are You Teasing Me
6 It's a Lovely, Lovely World
7 Our Honeymoon
8 That's the Kind of Love I'm Looking for
9 Orchids Mean Goodbye
10 Just Wait 'Til I Get You Alone
11 Trademark
12 Do I Like It?
13 Hey Joe!
14 Satisfaction Guaranteed
15 Dog-Gone It, Baby, I'm in Love
16 Back Up Buddy
17 Go, Boy Go
18 Loose Talk
19 More Than Anything Else in the World
20 Kisses Don't Lie
21 There She Goes
22 You're Free to Go
23 I Feel Like Cryin'
24 You Are the One
25 Doorstep to Heaven
26 Before I Met You
27 Wicked Lies
28 Why, Why
29 Your Name Is Beautiful
30 Ten Thousand Drums
31 The Best Dressed Beggar (In Town)
CARL "Mr. Country" SMITH (also known as "The Gentleman Honky-Tonker") was one of the genre's most consistent hitmakers of the 1950s, notching up more than thirty Top 10 C&W records. Although he'd emerged from a Honky-Tonk background, Smith became one of the first Country singers to experiment with a more "cosmopolitan" style, which smoothed out a lot of the rougher edges and took him, musically, away from diehard traditional towards the late 50s Nashville Countrypolitan sound. His chart success continued well into the late 1970s, when he abruptly retired from singing to raise a family and breed horses, on his 500-acre ranch in Franklin, Tennessee. This compilation, which includes five #1s and more than a dozen further Top 5 records, features all but two of Carl's Top 10 Country hits between 1951-62 (we had to omit a couple of top tenners, as they simply wouldn't all fit).