Sammi Smith: The Defiant Outlaw Who Sang the Forbidden Hit

Sammi Smith dropped out of school at age 11 to sing in smoky Oklahoma nightclubs — and grew up to record the song Nashville was terrified to release. In 1971 the defiant outlaw country singer cut Kris Kristofferson's Help Me Make It Through the Night, a track whose honest sexuality had label executives predicting commercial suicide for a female artist.

Instead, the forbidden hit became a watershed in country music history, crossing over to pop, selling millions, and announcing the arrival of "country soul." This episode follows Smith from teenage hardship through the outlaw country movement, revealing a load-bearing pillar of artistic independence the history books too often reserve for her male counterparts.

• Johnny Cash's bass player Marshall Grant discovered her in 1967 at Oklahoma City's Someplace Else nightclub

• Help Me Make It Through the Night hit No. 8 on the pop chart and sold over two million copies

• The record won her the 1972 Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance

• Historians credit the recording as the arrival of country soul, weaving R&B rhythm into country twang