Song:Help Me Make It Through The Night
Album:The Best Of Sammi Smith
Of course Help Me Make It Through The Night is a classic Kris Kristofferson song and plenty of singers have recorded it. But country singer Sammi Smith had the biggest hit with the song and even crossed over to the pop charts. She was also a big part of the 70s outlaw country movement with Waylon Jennings. She was born Jewel Faye Smith Aug. 5, 1943 in Orange Country, CA where her dad was stationed in the military. After some moving around, the family went back to their native Oklahoma. At age 11, she dropped out of school and began singing in clubs. She was married at age 15 and had four children but divorced in her twenties. Sammi moved to Nashville in 1967 and Johnny Cash got her a deal with Columbia. She recorded five singles for Columbia. None of them were big hits. So then Sammi signed with the new label Mega Records run by veteran RCA Nashville promotion man Brad McCuen. Help Me Make it Through The Night was her debut album in 1970 and Help Me Make It Through The Night was the second single.The single topped the Country Singles chart and reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album topped the Country Album chart. Her producer was Monument Records recording engineer Jim Malloy. A lot of singers have recorded Help Me Make It Through The Night but Sammi Smith's version is the definitive version. She won a 1972 Best Country Vocal Performance Grammy. Sammi moved to Dallas in 1973 and joined Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson in the outlaw country movement. She toured with both and married Nelson's guitarist Jody Payne. She didn't have the same success partially because it seemed that Mega Records was swallowed up by a larger company every year and her country pop style needed to change and didn't. They closed in 1976. You can get all of her hits on this Varese comp. Sammi recorded one album for Elektra and a couple of others for small labels and had a couple more country hits in the 80s. She was supposed to be part of the outlaw movement with Jennings but her music didn't fit in with their style. It was a missed opportunity that was not recognized by her record company. But she seemed to retire from music and moved back to Oklahoma and became an activist for Native American issues. Sammi Smith died on Feb. 12, 2005 at age 61. Her son Waylon Payne is a singer, songwriter and actor in Los Angeles. He played Jerry Lee Lewis in the 2005 film I Walk The Line. Here's Sammi Smith performing Help Me Make It Through The Night on That Good Ole Nashville Music 1971.
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