The Exciting Connie Francis
After her breakthrough in early 1958 with her single "Who's Sorry Now?", a rock 'n' roll oriented version of the 1923 standard, and a subsequent album of the same title, Francis chose to take a more adult approach to her second album. For "The Exciting Connie Francis", she chose twelve American standards. Francis clearly marked the album as a concept album by dividing it into two sections with different moods: Side A is filled with songs differing between mid-tempo and up-tempo, while Side B consists solely of ballads.
Connie Smith
In addition, the label also gave her the advantage of being able to incorporate more gospel songs into her regular country studio albums. Because of these factors, most of her singles remained out of the top ten, but she did manage to stay in the top 20 most of the decade. That year Smith recorded her first country album for the label entitled "A Lady Named Smith" with producer George Richey. Smith and Richey co-wrote the album's lead single, "You've Got Me (Right Where You Want Me)", which became a minor hit on the "Billboard" country chart. However Smith was dissatisfied with Richey's production strategies and replaced him with Ray Baker for her next album, "That's the Way Love Goes" (1974). Her next single (released on "That's the Way Love Goes") was written by Dallas Frazier called "Ain't Love a Good Thing", which peaked at No. 10 on the Hot Country Singles Chart in 1974.