From: "Dik de Heer" Date: Fri Jun 21, 2002 1:13 am Subject: Born To Be With You : Ocie Smith OCIE SMITH aka O.C. SMITH Born Ocie Lee Smith, 21 June 1936, Mansfield, Louisiana Died 23 November 2001, Los Angeles, California Ocie Smith started singing in public while in the U.S. Air Force, 1953-55. His first record, in 1956, was a cover of "Tutti Frutti" on MGM, but the label credits went to "Art Mooney and his Orchestra", who employed Smith as a vocalist. That same year he went solo and signed with Archie Bleyer's Cadence label, where the Everly Brothers had not yet arrived. Billed as Ocie Smith, he debuted with "Slow Walk"/"Forbidden Fruit" on Cadence 1304. His Cadence single "Too Many"/"Lighthouse" was also released in the UK (London HLA 8480). "Too Many" is a composition of the Bryants (Boudleaux and Felice), originally recorded by Wiley Barkdull on Hickory. Smith's records didn't sell and he switched to jazz, working with Count Basie's Band as a vocalist (replacing Joe Williams), 1961-63. When soul became the rage, Smith changed his style again, though some of his records also contained elements of country music. Now recording as O.C. Smith, he had to wait until 1968 for his first hit, the Dallas Frazier composition "Son Of Hickory Holler's Tramp", on Columbia (# 40 pop), which was followed by his biggest smash, "Little Green Apples" (# 2, both pop and R&B). Until late 1971 he had several further hits on Columbia, all produced by Jerry Fuller. After leaving Columbia in 1974, he moved to the Caribou label in 1976 and recorded later for Shady Brooks, Family, Motown, and Rendezvous, not without success (seven smaller hits on the R&B charts, 1976-87). In 1985 he began to balance his work in the recording studio with his new passion for Christian ministry, but despite the fact that he founded his own church in Los Angeles, The City of Angels Church of Religious Science, the Reverend O.C. Smith continued to perform and record until the time of his death on November 23, 2001.