Arthur Q. Smith has been played on NTS shows including ARRHYTHMIA, with I Doose What I Choose first played on 6 October 2020.

Arthur Q. Smith (James Arthur Prichett, December 11, 1909 - March 21, 1963) was an American songwriter, singer and guitarist.

Smith was born in Griffin, Georgia. From the 1930s to the 1950s he performed on Knoxville radio WNOX’s famed Midday Merry-Go-Round. When James Arthur Prichett joined the Merry-Go-Round, he adopted the stage name Arthur Q. Smith. The “Q” was probably added to distinguish him from “Fiddlin’” Arthur Smith and Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith, respectively a fiddler and an electric guitarist of the same era. Arthur Q. sang in a pleasant if occasionally faltering tenor reminiscent of the vocals of Hank Williams Sr.—good old basic hillbilly singing.

Arthur Q. Smith, like Hank Williams, was an excellent songwriter.

Although Smith should have had a life of comfort and riches, he was an alcoholic and instead led a troubled existence through his disease. Sometimes, his need was so desperate that he sold all rights to the songs to singers for fees as paltry as $25. Surprisingly, Smith kept receipts for many of these transactions and after his death actions by his widow allowed her to receive some royalties.

Among Smith’s songs, some of which were written in collaboration with others, are ‘Missing In Action’ (a Korean War hit for Ernest Tubb), ‘I Wouldn’t Change You If I Could’ (written with Paul H. Jones but credited to Jim Eanes, and recorded by Ricky Skaggs), ‘Beautiful Brown Eyes’ (with Jerry Cape, recorded by Rosemary Clooney), ‘Next Sunday Darlin’ Is My Birthday’ (recorded by Hank Williams), as was ‘Wedding Bells’ (a song Smith sold to singer Claude Boone). For a while, Smith was Williams’ manager but their drinking turned their association into a disaster. Reportedly, Smith’s ‘The Man In The Moon Cried Last Night’ was to have been recorded by Williams but he died a few days before the planned session. The song came to light many decades later, having been stored away by Smith’s wife.

Smith was also writer or co-writer of ‘I Overlooked An Orchid’, ‘I Wouldn’t Change You If I Could’, ‘Rainbow At Midnight’, ‘If Teardrops Were Pennies’, ‘I Doose What I Choose’ and ‘You Can’t Hide A Heartache’. Songwriter Harlan Howard paid tribute to Smith with ‘Be Careful Who You Love (Arthur’s Song)’, which was recorded by Marty Stuart and Hank Williams Jnr. In recent years, owing to Howard, journalist Wayne Potter, and Smith’s son, James Pritchett, some of the songwriter’s stature has been restored.