Arthur Smith

[Ray Montee]

Didn't he go over to MGM?

When might that have been.

[Stan Knowles NC]

Ray...I'm not sure exactly when he did....but he did
sign with MGM and "Guitar Boogie" and "Fingers on Fire"
were released on MGM and sold a lots of records, especially for that era of country music!

[Jim Priebe]

Interesting history there (for me anyway).
I had a MGM 78 of Guitar Boogie and that would have been in 1957/8. I was learning guitar (a home made heap of scrap with a plywood box and a razor fret neck I was given from some busted wreck).
I can still remember listening to that record and thinking 'He's just playing different things over the same chord change' - then bingo - I realised what an ad lib solo was. Then I heard Charlie Christian and then Barney Kessel etc. etc. but it was Arthur Smith that popped the light bulb for me.

[Jan Viljoen]

Pure nostalgics.

I was in 8 grade ('66) on a farm 100 miles from the nearest biggish city and my nieces came over for visit from Johannesburg. It was from a different planet.

One of them brought a boyfriend with and he knew the first 1, 4, 5 parts of Guitar Boogie.
It turned my gears on immediately
And away I go.

Only years later I learnt it properly. Those nieces could also bob and swing, and I could not.


But I swore that I would learn and I would do it better than them.
I did too, and they turned green, cause I could also spin the girl, step and throw her over my shoulder and pull under my legs.

Thanks Arthur, you enriched my life for ever and others as well.