Ed Smith

In 1979 Ed Smith recorded a two-sided country single for Cheyenne Records, a small independent label in the Toronto area. Issued as Cheyenne CH. 128, it put a new song, 'Back Up Baby', on the A side and one of the most successful country records ever made, 'Walk On By', on the flip.

Cheyenne was one of the independents keeping Ontario country music on record at the end of the 1970s. Don Turner ran the label from 190 Don Park Road in Markham, an address it shared with the publishing company Don Park Music, and he handled A&R on Smith's single. Bob Munro produced it. Munro also produced Cheyenne's 1979 release for Sherry Black, a young singer from Ajax who had appeared on the Lively Country television show and at Opry North, and the label's catalogue reached into gospel with Murray Sword.

'Back Up Baby' was written by Sherman Crysler and published by Prestar Music. 'Walk On By' went back to 1961. Kendall Hayes wrote it, and Leroy Van Dyke recorded it in Nashville that May for Mercury. His version held the top of the Billboard country chart for 19 weeks, crossed into the pop Top 5, and in 1994 Billboard named it the biggest country record in its history. Canadian singers had long since made it their own; Newfoundland's Joan Morrissey cut it for Maritime Records in 1967.

'Back Up Baby' found airplay in Cobourg, Ontario, a town where country music had been part of local social life for years. In August 1980 RPM, the national trade weekly, listed the song among the records Ian Caldwell was playing at CHUC.

-Robert Williston