Pure Connie Smith

Pure Connie Smith is the thirtieth studio album by American country music artist Connie Smith. The album was released in November 1977 on Monument Records and was produced by Ray Baker. It was Smith's first album for the Monument label, after leaving Columbia Records earlier in the year.

Pure Connie Smith
Studio album by
Connie Smith
ReleasedNovember 1977
StudioWoodland Sound Studios and Columbia Recording Studios, Nashville, Tennessee
GenreCountry pop
Length28:34
LabelMonument
ProducerRay Baker
Connie Smith chronology
I Don't Wanna Talk It Over Anymore
(1976)		 Pure Connie Smith
(1977)		 The Best of Connie Smith
(1977)
Singles from Pure Connie Smith
  1. "Coming Around"
    Released: March 1977

Background

Pure Connie Smith contained ten tracks of new material. The only cover version included on the release was Dottie West's top-20 single "When It's Just You and Me". The album was recorded in a different format than any of Smith's previous albums; most of its material had a softer country pop sound. After signing with Monument in 1977, Smith's musical style moved towards not only country pop, but also slow tempo adult contemporary and upbeat disco. Allmusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine reviewed Smith's 1993 compilation Greatest Hits on Monument (which included three songs from Pure Connie Smith) and criticized her musical sound under Monument, stating, "This is commercial music that doesn't really work. It has a state-of-the-art production that dates instantly, walks the line between crossover pop and country-pop rather clumsly [sic], and lacks good material."[1]

Slipcue.com reviewed Pure Connie Smith and gave it a more positive review, calling the album Smith's "swinger album" and further explaining that the album had a "much looser, casual sense of morality in evidence".[2] The release was issued on a 12-inch LP album, with five songs on each side of the record.[3]

Release

Pure Connie Smith only spawned one single. The album's first track, "Coming Around", was released as a single in March 1977, only becoming a minor hit in the United States. The song peaked outside the top 40, reaching number 58 on the Billboard Magazine Hot Country Songs chart shortly after its release.[4] Pure Connie Smith itself failed to chart on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, as all of Smith's albums for the label "stiffed" according to Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic.[1]

Track listing
Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Coming Around"Red Lane2:27
2."That's What Loving You Can Do"Don Gibson2:10
3."Don't Treat Me Like a Stranger"Dave Loggins2:55
4."Scrapbook"Tupper Saussy3:52
5."Every Move You Make (Is Saying Goodbye)"Steve Collom2:30
Side
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."It Pleases Me to Please You"Dave Loggins3:20
2."I Don't Want to Be Free"Paul Craft2:15
3."When It's Just You and Me"Kenny O'Dell3:39
4."You and Love and I"Sanger D. Shafer, Warren Robb2:45
5."Lovin' One Day at a Time"Kenny Walker2:41

Track listing

David McKinley, Rex Collier, Hank Williams, Ronnie Reynolds, Ronnie Dean — engineers[5]

Sales chart positions
Singles
Year Song Chart positions
US Country
1977 "Coming Around" 58

References
  1. Thomas Erlewine, Stephen. "Greatest Hits on Monument > Review". allmusic. Retrieved 2009-08-16.
  2. "Connie Smith Discography - Joe Sixpack's Guide to Hick Music". Slipcue.com. Archived from the original on 2009-08-05. Retrieved 2009-08-16.
  3. "Pure Connie Smith by Connie Smith". Rate Your Music. Retrieved 2009-08-16.
  4. "Charts & awards > Greatest Hits on Monument". allmusic. Retrieved 2009-08-16.
  5. Pure Connie Smith (Media notes). Connie Smith. Nashville, Tennessee: Monument Record Corporation. 1977. MG7609.CS1 maint: others (link)
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