Great Speckled Bird by Reverend Guy Smith "I first heard the song on the radio in the thirties sung by a group who called themselves the Black Shirts. I took a liking to the song, picked it up and started singing it. I didn't know then who owned the song, but later I found out that Reverend Guy Smith in the Carolinas had written it [1937]. The song gave me my opportunity here in Nashville. My fiddle didn't get it. It took hold of the audience and I got a standing ovation on it, the only one that had ever been gotten at The Grand Ole Opry at that time. This was an audition at the Opry, and I opened the show with it. I came to Nashville as a fiddler and Arthur Smith was off away sick, and they called me on. I had been trying to get on for five years. You didn't get on the Opry back then for singing a song or having a hit number. They didn't ask you if you ever recorded. They didn't care. You had to be a showman. The only way you could get on was to have something to show and to prove it. That night, along with my fiddling, I did the 'Great Speckled Bird,' and when I did it the audience stood and cheered and cheered. I tried to leave but they brought me back two, three times. I went on home to Knoxville, not knowing whether I was ever going to be accepted on the Opry or not. They sent me my mail, bushel baskets full of it, and it started the WSM management. Two weeks later they called me and asked if I would take a regular job. The song brought Roy Acuff to the Opry. I didn't bring it, it brought me." — Roy Acuff