Beasley Smith
Musician · 1901–1968 · McEwen, Tennessee
Best known for
Songwriter
Beasley Smith was a Tennessee-born big-band leader, WSM music director, and Nashville session organizer who, with lyricist Haven Gillespie, wrote the 1949 standard “That Lucky Old Sun” — a million-selling No. 1 for Frankie Laine and a song since recorded by Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, and Willie Nelson. Along with Owen Bradley, he helped invent the Nashville studio scene of the late 1940s.
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- Born John Beasley Smith on September 27, 1901, in McEwen, Tennessee, to two schoolteachers; raised in Nashville.
- Roomed with fellow pianist Francis Craig at Vanderbilt before leaving college after two years to pursue music full-time.
- Formed the Beasley Smith Orchestra around 1922; the group became the house band at the Andrew Jackson Hotel by 1925 and toured nationally from 1927 to 1933.
- Joined WSM as music director in 1933.
- Helped Owen Bradley assemble the first generation of Nashville studio musicians in the 1940s.
- Co-wrote “That Lucky Old Sun” with Haven Gillespie in 1949; Frankie Laine’s Mercury recording sold a million copies and spent eight weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart.
- Left WSM in 1953 to become Dot Records’ A&R director and musical arranger; co-founded Randy-Smith Music Publishing with Dot owner Randy Wood.
- Wrote more than 100 published songs over his career.
- Died May 14, 1968, in Nashville.
- Inducted posthumously into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1983.
