When I think of classic “country-and-western” music I think of a song like this – a jaunty rhythm, the twang of a steel guitar, a catch in the voice, and a lyric filled with heartbreak (and a hint of humour).

Connie Smith never found the international fame of Dolly and Loretta, Tammy and Patsy, but she became a superstar overnight in 1964 thanks to this chart-topping tale of lost love.

Few female singers, apart from Patsy Cline, could convey lonely desperation as effortlessly as she does on this weepy ballad about coming to terms with her man finding someone new: “From dusk till dawn, all day long / The only time I wish you weren’t gone / Is once a day, every day, all day long.”

Like her predecessor Skeeter Davis, she’s one of the most underrated and influential singers in country music history, her only misfortune to be compared constantly to Patsy Cline, another female star who could effortlessly convey lonely desperation like this.

In the ’70s Connie found God and transitioned to Gospel music, more or less retiring at the end of that decade, but made a comeback in 1998 and was performing well into the 21st century, returning every now and then to record a well-received new set of songs with husband, producer and fellow country star Marty Stuart.

Connie Smith was born Constance Meadows on August 14, 1941, in Elkhart, Indiana, but spent her early life first in West Virginia and later in Ohio. She married and became a housewife in the early ’60s, singing occasionally on local TV shows around her hometown.

She was discovered in 1963 by another long-forgotten country star Bill Anderson, who helped her get a deal with RCA and wrote Once A Day for her. Unusually for a female artist at the time, she accompanies herself on guitar on the record.