Inducted 2010

In Sept 1938 he recorded his first music for RCA Bluebird under the direction of famed talent scout Eli Overstein. Arthur moved to Charlotte, NC, in 1943 and became a member of WBT Radio's Carolina Hayride. Arthur Smith and the Crackerjacks broadcast a daily program, Carolina Calling, heard live coast-to-coast on the CBS Radio Network. The Country Store, another original radio program, featured Arthur and his brothers Sonny and Ralph in a mixture of music and country comedy. In the 1950s, with the advent of television, Arthur Smith hosted the first live broadcast of an entertainment program on WBTV, the first television station in the Carolinas. Eventually Arthur hosted and served as executive producer of the syndicated show, which aired on 90 stations coast-to-coast.

Smith's most enduring accomplishments may be as a composer. While in boot camp during World War II, he wrote and recorded a jazzy guitar instrumental called "Guitar Boogie". The recording sold over a million copies and rocketed to the top of the country charts, the first instrumental to do so, then crossed over to the pop charts, again rising to #1. In 1955, he worked up a banjo duet, "Feuding Banjos", which Warner Brothers later retitled as "Dueling Banjos" for the 1973 film, Deliverance.

Arthur has composed many well-known gospel songs including "Acres of Diamonds", "The Fourth Man", "I Saw A Man", "Shadow of A Cross", and "I've Been with Jesus". Quartets such as The Florida Boys, Cathedrals, Rebels, and Blue Ridge Quartet recorded his writings. Additional songs by Smith were recorded by Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Barbara Mandrell, and Willie Nelson.

Smith said "I visualized a TV set in the den or living room, with a 7 year old kid lying on the floor, and Dad reading the newspaper," he explains, "and I thought these were my audience. I never saw millions of people, or auditoriums full of people. I always saw the intamacy that could be created."