From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Sun Mar 31, 2002  6:21 pm
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Arthur Smith
 
ARTHUR "GUITAR BOOGIE" SMITH

Born 1 April 1921, Clinton, South Carolina

Arthur Smith's fame is linked to one song to such an extent that it
has become a permanent part of his name. Born in a musical family,
Smith learned to play guitar, fiddle, mandolin and banjo, and formed
a country trio with his brothers. One of his early influences was the
Gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. In 1945 Smith recorded several
tunes for Irwin Feld's Super Disc label. These went largely unnoticed
until MGM president Frank Walker, looking for "new" material to release
during the musicians' recording strike of 1948, bought up the masters that
Smith had cut for Super Disc. MGM first released "Banjo Boogie" (# 9
country), but it was just a warm-up. "Guitar Boogie" broke out during the
last week of 1948 and became a big country (# 8) and pop (# 25) hit.
Listened to 57 years later, "Guitar Boogie" still sounds remarkably
modern. In 1959 the tune, renamed "Guitar Boogie Shuffle", was a pop
smash for The Virtues.
Smith's last record, in 1963, was "Tie My Hunting Dog Down, Jed", a
take-off on the then popular "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" by Rolf
Harris, but one of his earlier tunes turned out to be his biggest seller
ever. In 1955, still at MGM, he had recorded a tune called "Feuding
Banjos". More than ten years later, Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandel
recorded it as "Dueling Banjos". Nothing happened until their performance
was used in the 1972 film "Deliverance". Suddenly Arthur Smith's old
banjo tune was being played everywhere and it went to # 2 on the pop
charts in early 1973.

CD: Here Comes The Boogie Man (Jasmine). 22 tracks.