Born on 7^th February 1932, Smith was raised by his grandparents in Louise, Mississippi following his parents divorce. After a stint in the air force, he moved to Memphis to make his fortune. He joined the Snearly Ranch Boys band, and in February 1956, while playing at the Cotton Club in West Memphis, he met Sam Phillips and Johnny Cash. Cash gave him a song called Rock ‘n’ Roll Ruby, which had been given to him, and Phillips invited the band to record it at his Sun Studio. Pleased with the results of the session, Phillips signed him to a contract and released the record.

The song quickly went to number one on the local charts, selling more copies than any of Sun’s other artists’ debut record, including both Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. Smith and the band then spent the rest of the summer of 1956 promoting the record on a grueling tour of Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi. A dispute over royalties after the tour led to a split between Smith and the band. In August 1956, after assembling his own band, he made his second record, on one side was a song written by a local university student called Ubangi Stomp.

However, despite an encouraging review from Billboard, record sales were poor. In February 1957, with another new line-up, Smith recorded a Roy Orbison song, So Long I’m Gone, and by May had reached number seventy-two on the charts. However, any chance of the record going further were dashed by one of Sun’s other artists, Jerry Lee Lewis, having a major hit at the same time. Sun didn’t have the resources to promote both so they concentrated on Lewis’ record.

The exact scenario happened again when his next record was released in October that year. Smith continued to record for the Sun label until 1959, and even though he was still producing some great songs, sales were disappointing and his contract was terminated. Moving to California he cut three songs for the Warner Brothers label under the name of Warren Baker. A change to a more real country sound led to a contract with Liberty Records, and a string of hits on the country charts during the early Sixties.

Just as his career started to take off, his addiction to amphetamines led to his downfall. He cut his last record for the Liberty label in 1964; he was seriously injured in a car accident in 1965; made an unsuccessful comeback after recovering from his injures and spent eighteen months in jail after being arrested on a regular basis for drink and drug related offences. During the late Seventies, he made several tours of Britain where authentic rockabilly performers were still in demand. He died on 31^st December 1981 of a massive heart attack.