Smith (band)

Smith was a one-hit wonder American rock band from St. Louis, Missouri with a blues based sound that had a top five hit in 1969 with a remake of The Shirelles "Baby It's You", with the lead sung by Gayle McCormick.

Smith was discovered by 1960s rocker Del Shannon in a nightclub in Los Angeles, California. McCormick had started her career singing songs by Tina Turner, Etta James and others of that ilk. Shannon arranged "Baby It's You" for the group and got them signed to the ABC-Dunhill label. Smith released an album titled "A Group Called Smith" which spent 11 weeks in the Top 40 album listings of the since-called Billboard 200 record charts. On the album, vocals were split amongst Rich Cliburn, Jerry Carter and McCormick. Smith recorded a second album titled "Minus-Plus" with lesser success. Smith's version of "The Weight" was included on the epochal "Easy Rider" soundtrack because The Band's version, which appeared in the movie, was not available for contractual reasons. The band's hit "Baby It's You" was also featured in Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse film, Death Proof.

McCormick went on to record three solo albums, "Gayle McCormick", "Flesh And Blood" and "One More Hour" after the group disbanded. "It's A Cryin' Shame" was a minor hit for her from the first of these, reaching #44 on the charts in 1971.

[http://home.earthlink.net/~iaccorg/Gayle2.htm Gayle McCormick site]