About The Song
“Once a Day” is a country ballad written by Bill Anderson and recorded by Connie Smith as her debut single. It was produced by Bob Ferguson and released on August 1, 1964, by RCA Victor Records, backed with “The Threshold” as the B-side. The track was cut during Smith’s first official session at RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee, on July 16, 1964, alongside three other songs. Running 2 minutes and 20 seconds, the arrangement features a distinctive steel guitar intro played by Weldon Myrick, who became a key collaborator in Smith’s early sound. Backing vocals were provided by The Anita Kerr Singers, contributing to the song’s polished Nashville Sound production.
The single entered the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in September 1964, reaching number one on November 28, 1964, and holding the top position for eight consecutive weeks through January 16, 1965. This made “Once a Day” the first debut single by a female country artist to top the chart, a record unbroken until Trisha Yearwood’s “She’s in Love with the Boy” in 1991. The eight-week run also set the longest No. 1 streak for any female country solo artist, surpassed only by Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” with nine weeks in 2012. It ranked as the top country song of 1965 on Billboard’s year-end chart and earned a Gold certification from the RIAA in 1967 for sales over 500,000 units. The self-titled debut album, released in March 1965, included the track and topped the Billboard Top Country Albums chart for seven weeks, spending 30 weeks in total.
Anderson penned the song in 1964, initially envisioning it for a male performer and recording a demo himself. However, after discovering Smith’s powerful voice, he tailored it for her, recognizing its fit for her contralto range and emotional delivery. The lyrics depict a woman grappling with heartbreak, finding ironic solace in reducing her tears to “once a day, all day long, and once a night from dusk ’til dawn.” The structure comprises two verses, a repeating chorus, and a bridge contrasting her situation with a friend who “lost her mind” over lost love. Smith’s initial recording was a demo, but Ferguson selected it for release after her signing to RCA.
Smith’s path to the song began in August 1963, when she won a talent contest in Columbus, Ohio, performing Jean Shepard’s “I Thought of You.” Anderson, impressed, encouraged her move to Nashville. After a New Year’s Day 1964 concert meeting, he helped secure her RCA deal in June 1964, with Chet Atkins assigning production to Ferguson due to his full roster. Myrick not only played on the session but assembled her touring band, the Conniptions. The song’s success launched Smith’s career, leading to Grammy nominations for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and Best New Artist in 1965, plus a Best Country Song nod for Anderson.
In 2021, “Once a Day” was inducted into the Library of Congress National Recording Registry for its cultural significance. It remains Smith’s signature hit, featured on compilations like Greatest Hits Vol. 1 (1967) and Just for Me (2015). Covers include versions by Loretta Lynn (1966), Glen Campbell (1967), and Martina McBride (1992 on The Way That I Am). Parodies and tributes appear in media, such as Van Morrison’s 1970 rendition on His Band and the Street Choir. Experts like those in The Billboard Book of Number One Country Hits praise its economy—three chords delivering profound irony—as emblematic of Anderson’s craft, while biographers in Connie Smith: Just One Voice (2022) note its role in establishing her as a vocal powerhouse akin to Patsy Cline.
Smith, born Constance June Meador on August 14, 1941, in Huntington, West Virginia, transitioned from housewife to Opry member by 1967, amassing 20 top-10 country hits through 1973. Anderson wrote eight of her early singles, including top-fives like “Then and Only Then” (1965). Despite later shifts to gospel and reduced charting, the song’s legacy endures, performed regularly at her ongoing tours and documented in outlets like American Songwriter for its historical breakthroughs.
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Lyric
When you found somebody new
I thought I never would
Forget you for I thought then I never could
But time has taken all the pains away
Until now, I’m down to hurtin’ once a dayOnce a day (once a day), all day long (all day long)
And once a night (once a night), from dusk ’til dawn (dusk ’til dawn)
The only time I wish you weren’t gone
Is once a day, every day, all day longI’m so glad that I’m not like a girl I knew one time
She lost the one she loved, then slowly lost her mind
She sat around and cried her life away
Lucky me, I’m only cryin’ once a dayOnce a day (once a day), all day long (all day long)
And once a night (once a night), from dusk ’til dawn (dusk ’til dawn)
The only time I wish you weren’t gone
Is once a day, every day, all day longOnce a day, every day, all day long