Arthur Smith and His Crackerjacks
The Man Behind the Crackerjacks
Arthur Smith came to radio with a nickname already burned into his reputation. Born April 1, 1921, in Clinton, South Carolina — the son of a textile mill worker — he grew up in Kershaw and learned guitar, fiddle, and banjo before finding his signature sound on the electric guitar. That signature had a name: "Guitar Boogie," a hillbilly boogie instrumental he recorded in 1945 and re-released on MGM Records in October 1948, billed as "Arthur (Guitar Boogie) Smith and His Cracker-Jacks." When Arthur Godfrey started playing it repeatedly on the air, the record climbed to number eight on the Hot Country Songs chart and crossed over to number 25 on the pop charts. The same year, Smith landed a top-ten country hit with "Banjo Boogie," and in 1949 "Guitar Boogie" and "Boomerang" kept him in the national conversation. The radio program and the recording career were running in parallel at full speed.
The Crackerjacks had a history before any of that. Smith and his brothers Ralph and Sonny originally formed a Dixieland jazz combo called the Carolina Crackerjacks, playing on WSPA in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The name came from Sonny finding a dictionary definition of "crackerjack" meaning someone excellent or outstanding; the "Carolina" reflected their South Carolina roots. The group eventually shifted to country music and moved to WBT in Charlotte around 1943. After the war they reunited on WBT's Carolina Barn Dance, and the ensemble that would anchor the 1948–1949 radio show took shape. At various points the Crackerjacks included Don Reno, fiddler Jim Buchanan, banjoist David Deese, resonator guitarist Ray Atkins, Tommy Faile, and country singer George Hamilton IV — a roster that made the band something more than a backing group.
How the Show Worked
Arthur Smith and His Crackerjacks premiered September 19, 1948, on WBT, a 100,000-watt clear-channel station in Charlotte that gave the program wide regional reach. Smith was also heard nationwide every Saturday afternoon on CBS. The program ran as a 15-minute daily transcribed show built around a country store setting — a format later more widely known as Arthur Smith's Corner Store. The known cast included Arthur, his brothers Sonny and Ralph, and vocalist Roy Lear; Clyde McLean voiced the announcer and recurring character Bill Mack, a traveling salesman.
The format mixed country music — with electric guitar as the lead instrument — with gospel music, humorous skits, storytelling, and product commercials. Cheer detergent was among the sponsors. Unusually for a country act of the period, the Crackerjacks worked from written charts, giving the ensemble a more disciplined, arranged sound than many of their contemporaries. Episodes included original compositions by Smith, described as reflecting the everyday lives of Americans, as well as traditional material like "Columbus Stockade Blues." Among the four surviving episodes, opening songs include "A Sinner's Prayer," "Someone," "I Hear You Talking," and "Columbus Stockade Blues." The last known broadcast was April 18, 1949. The broader Corner Store format continued on WBT into the early 1950s, but the specific run documented here closes with that April 1949 date.
What Came Next
The radio show was a chapter in a much longer story. In 1951, Smith emceed part of the first live television broadcast in the Carolinas on WBTV. The Arthur Smith Show debuted that year and became the first nationally syndicated country music television program, eventually reaching up to 90 markets and running for 32 years. He also hosted a daily radio program at WBT called Top of the Morning, syndicated for 29 consecutive years. In 1957 he founded the first commercial recording studio in the Carolinas, in Charlotte; the facility's client list eventually included James Brown, Pat Boone, the Statler Brothers, Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, and Billy Graham's Hour of Decision radio program.
The legal chapter of his career is worth noting too. In 1955 Smith recorded a banjo instrumental called "Feudin' Banjos" with Don Reno. The 1972 film Deliverance used it without credit as "Dueling Banjos." Smith sued Warner Brothers, won, and the track reached number one in the United States and Canada. His influence as a guitarist has been cited in connection with Glen Campbell, Roy Clark, Tom Petty, Eric Clapton, and Paul McCartney, who reportedly used "Guitar Boogie" as his audition piece for the Quarrymen. Smith's work has been placed in discussions about the bridge between Western swing and rockabilly, and "Guitar Boogie" turns up in ongoing arguments about which record might reasonably be called the first rock and roll record. Arthur Smith died April 3, 2014, two days after his 93rd birthday. The four surviving episodes of Arthur Smith and His Crackerjacks represent a brief, early window into a career that turned out to be very long.