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
Meanwhile, both of Smith's albums under the label stiffed upon release. Her debut 1977 Monument album, "Pure Connie Smith", only spawned one single, entitled "Coming Around", which peaked outside the Top 40. Only one single released on the label became a significant hit, a cover of Andy Gibb's 1977 pop hit "I Just Want to Be Your Everything", which peaked at No. 14 on the country singles chart in 1978. Her next five singles on the label continued to descend into progressively lower positions on the country singles chart and because of poor record sales, Smith decided to go into semi-retirement in 1979 to raise her five children.
Smith was encouraged to restart her mainstream career in 1985 with a new recording contract to Epic Records. The label released two singles over the course of two years. The first single, "A Far Cry from You" (1985), was written by Alternative country artist Steve Earle and reached No. 71 on the Hot Country Singles chart.