Connie Smith

===1973–1979: Record label switches, pop music incorporation and semi-retirement===
In 1973, RCA promised to give Smith a better royalty and more creative control if she renewed her contract. In an updated contract, these terms were not met. Upon hiring a lawyer, she left RCA and was offered a contract by [[Columbia Records]].{{sfn|Mazor|2021|p=11}} In 1973, Smith signed a new recording contract with Columbia Records.<ref name="singsherhits">{{cite web|last=Jurek|first=Thom|title=''Connie Smith Sings Her Hits'' > Review|url={{AllMusic|class=album|id=r387487|pure_url=yes}}|website=Allmusic|access-date=August 14, 2010}}</ref> The label gave her more creative control including the opportunity record one gospel album per year.<ref name="allmusicbio"/> At Columbia, she met with [[Clive Davis]], who agreed to produce her. However, the label dismissed Davis before they could work together. Instead, producer [[Billy Sherrill]] chose to work with Smith. However, a disagreement about religion ended the pairing before it began. She started recording alongside producer [[George Richey]], who recently had success writing material for [[George Jones]] and [[Tammy Wynette]].{{sfn|Mazor|2021|p=11}}

At Columbia, Smith was pressured into recording with more pop production than before. "From Day One at the new label, even more than before, it was a constant tussle, because I just am who I am," recalled Smith.{{sfn|Mazor|2021|p=9}} However, she remained active in song selection and the recording process.{{sfn|Mazor|2021|p=18-21}} Smith's first Columbia LP titled ''[[A Lady Named Smith]]'' (1973) included pop production such as string instrumentation and overdubbed background vocals.{{sfn|Mazor|2021|p=37-39}} The LP reached number 31 on the ''Billboard'' country albums chart.<ref name="Country Albums"/> Richey agreed to release "[[Ain't Love a Good Thing]]" as her first Columbia single. Instead, the Richey-Smith co-written song "[[You've Got Me (Right Where You Want Me)]]" proved to be the first label single. The decision disappointed Smith enough that she chose to end their professional relationship.{{sfn|Mazor|2021|p=12}} The last Richey-produced project was Smith's first Columbia gospel LP titled ''[[God Is Abundant]]''. The album of religious material climbed to number 20 on the ''Billboard'' country albums chart.<ref name="Country Albums"/>{{sfn|Mazor|2021|p=38-39}}

[[File:Connie Smith--1974.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Smith performing at the ''Grand Ole Opry'' with her daughter on her arm, 1974.]]
Smith chose [[Ray Baker (music producer)|Ray Baker]] to serve as her next producer. Baker had operated a publishing company and produced several song demos that prompted Smith to choose him. The pair had a more agreeable relationship and recorded together throughout the decade.{{sfn|Mazor|2021|p=13}} Baker produced Smith's next Columbia album titled ''[[That's the Way Love Goes (Connie Smith album)|That's the Way Love Goes]]'' (1974). The LP featured several original recordings and cover tunes. The album included "Ain't Love a Good Thing", which was released as a single and became her eighteenth top 10 song on the ''Billboard'' country chart.<ref name="whitburn"/>{{sfn|Mazor|2021|p=41-42}} Although she recorded two gospel projects in 1974, the label waited until 1975 to release both LPs.{{sfn|Mazor|2021|p=15}} Instead, Columbia released a secular project titled ''[[I Never Knew (What That Song Meant Before)]]'' (1974).{{sfn|Mazor|2021|p=20}} Its [[I Never Knew (What That Song Meant Before) (song)|title track]] became a top 20 ''Billboard'' country single, peaking at number 13.<ref name="whitburn"/> It was followed in 1975 by the traditional country LP ''[[I Got a Lot of Hurtin' Done Today/I've Got My Baby On My Mind]]''.{{sfn|Mazor|2021|p=20}} Both "[[I've Got My Baby on My Mind]]" and Smith's cover of [[Hank Williams]]'s "[[Why Don't You Love Me (Hank Williams song)|Why Don't You Love Me]]" reached the country top 20.<ref name="whitburn"/>

Music critics noticed a change in Smith's vocals following her Columbia switch. When reviewing the compilation, ''Connie Smith Sings Her Hits'', Thom Jurek of Allmusic commented that she lost the "grain" in her voice. Jurek went on to write "It could be said, that regardless of the material, she never made a bad record; the tunes were carefully chosen it's true, but she never tried to hide the hardcore twang in her vocal style."<ref name="singsherhits"/> Smith's biographer, Barry Mazor, found her voice to "lower in range by this point" and saw evidence of Columbia attempting to "push her recorded vocal into the upper end of her range".{{sfn|Mazor|2021|p=13}} Other critics noticed stylistic changes but observed no change in her singing. NPR's Ken Tucker found her recordings in this era to feature more pop instrumentation but did not "obscure the passion and pain she communicated so fearlessly".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Tucker |first1=Ken |title=Connie Smith shines as an interpreter of heartbreak on 2 new releases |url=https://www.npr.org/2022/02/07/1078854850/connie-smith-shines-as-an-interpreter-of-heartbreak-on-2-new-releases |access-date=28 June 2022 |work=[[NPR]] |date=February 7, 2022}}</ref>

In 1975, Columbia released both of her 1974 gospel projects.{{sfn|Mazor|2021|p=15}} The first was ''[[Connie Smith Sings Hank Williams Gospel]]''. For the album, Smith and Baker went through the Hank Williams catalog where they came across a series of never-before-released gospel songs.{{sfn|Mazor|2021|p=44-45}} The result was the first album of Hank Williams gospel material recorded by another artist.{{sfn|Mazor|2021|p=21-22}} In 1976, the project was nominated by the Grammy Awards for [[Best Gospel Performance]].<ref name="Grammys">{{cite web |title=Connie Smith: Artist |url=https://www.grammy.com/artists/connie-smith/17418 |website=[[Grammy Awards]] |access-date=30 April 2022}}</ref> The second 1975 religious LP was the gospel influenced [[Christmas music|Christmas]] album titled ''[[Joy to the World (Connie Smith album)|Joy to the World]]''.{{sfn|Mazor|2021|p=22-23}} In 1976, Columbia issued two more country albums of Smith's material: ''[[The Song We Fell in Love To]]'' and ''[[I Don't Wanna Talk It Over Anymore]]''.{{sfn|Mazor|2021|p=24}} Both LPs peaked in the ''Billboard'' country albums top 40.<ref name="Country Albums"/> The albums included the number 13 country single "[[I Don't Wanna Talk It Over Anymore (song)|I Don't Wanna Talk It Over Anymore]]" and her twentieth top 10, a remake of [[The Everly Brothers]]'s "[[(Till) I Kissed You]]".<ref name="whitburn"/> The latter was Smith's second single to top Canada's ''RPM'' country chart.<ref name="rpm"/>

In 1977 Smith moved to [[Fred Foster]]'s Nashville label [[Monument Records]]. She was pressured into recording more country pop material than before and was given singing lessons by a songwriter. "He [Fred Foster] wanted to mold me into something That I wasn't comfortable with," Smith commented. "That's why that never worked."{{sfn|Mazor|2021|p=24}} AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine found her Monument music to have "state-of-the-art production that dates instantly, walks the line between crossover pop and country-pop rather clumsly, and lacks good material."<ref name="Monument Albums">{{cite web |last1=Erlewine |first1=Stephen Thomas |title=''Greatest Hits on Monument'': Connie Smith: Songs, reviews, credits |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/greatest-hits-on-monument-mw0000095034 |website=[[AllMusic]] |access-date=28 June 2022}}</ref> Monument released two LPs of Smith's material between 1977 and 1978.{{sfn|Mazor|2021|p=24}} Her only commercially successful Monument single was a cover of [[Andy Gibb]]'s "[[I Just Want to Be Your Everything]]". The single climbed to number 14 on the ''Billboard'' country chart. Yet, her other Monument releases reached progressively-lower positions on the country chart between 1978 and 1979.<ref name="Monument Albums"/> Furthermore, Smith had five children by this point and felt pressured to be at home with her family. Ultimately, Smith decided to leave her country music career entirely to focus on raising her children and tending to her religious needs.{{sfn|Mazor|2021|p=24}}