Smith attended Hume-Fogg High School, where he formed an instrumental duo with fellow piano prodigy Francis Craig.
They both attended Vanderbilt University, where they were roommates, but Smith left college after two years to pursue a career as a musician.
By 1925 the group was entertaining regularly at the Andrew Jackson Hotel in downtown Nashville, and on October 5, 1925, both Smith and Craig performed with their bands during radio station WSM's opening-day broadcasts.
Lead vocalists who worked with Smith's band during his heyday included Snooky Lanson, Dottie Dillard, Kitty Kallen, and Dinah Shore.
"That Lucky Old Sun" (1949), co-written with Haven Gillespie was a million-seller for Frankie Laine and is now considered a pop-music standard.