Smith - A Group Called Smith (1994)

Smith was an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1969. They had a blues-based sound and achieved a Top 5 hit in the United States in 1969 with a cover of the Burt Bacharach song "Baby It's You," featuring Gayle McCormick on lead vocals. The record sold over a million copies between July and October 1969—surpassing popular versions by the Beatles and the Shirelles—and was certified gold by the RIAA.
Smith's version appeared on their debut album, *A Group Called Smith*. The single was released in 1969 on Dunhill Records (4206); it was their first and most successful release. This version departed from the traditional vocal arrangement used by the Shirelles and the Beatles, opting instead for a more soulful vocal style. The single reached number five on the *Billboard* Hot 100. The Smith version was featured in Quentin Tarantino's film *Death Proof*.

The band evolved from a group called The Smiths (not to be confused with the British band of the 1980s). They released a single titled "Now I Taste the Tears," but the track was not commercially successful.

Subsequently, Gayle McCormick (who had begun her career singing songs by Tina Turner, Etta James, and others) joined the band as lead vocalist. The band was discovered in a Los Angeles nightclub by 1960s rocker Del Shannon; he arranged the song "Baby It's You" for the group—now known simply as Smith—leading to their signing with ABC-Dunhill Records.

Smith released an album titled *A Group Called Smith*, which spent 11 weeks in the Top 40 of the Billboard 200 chart. Lead vocal duties on the album were shared by Rich Cliburn, Jerry Carter, and McCormick. The band recorded a second album, *Minus-Plus*, but it met with less success, peaking at number 74. Smith's version of "The Weight" was included on the *Easy Rider* soundtrack because contractual issues prevented the use of The Band's version, which had appeared in the film itself. Much of their material consisted of covers of popular rock and R&B songs.

The band's singles "Take a Look Around" and "What Am I Going to Do" made the charts, but the group disbanded following the release of their second album.
Afterward, McCormick recorded three less successful solo albums; following this period of relative lack of success, she retired from her career as a singer and worked in the commercial sector. She married and moved to Hawaii, but the couple divorced after three years, and she returned home. She never remarried and lived with her mother until her mother's death in 2010. In 2015, she was hospitalized with pneumonia, but it soon turned out that she had metastatic lung cancer. She passed away in St. Louis on March 1, 2016.
The VH1 Save The Music Foundation played a key role in raising awareness of Gayle McCormick after her death.