Where Is My Castle

Connie Smith reached the peak of her commercial success in the mid 1960s with a series of top ten country singles fueled by the eight-week number one song, "Once a Day". In 1968, Smith discovered Christianity and re-evaluated her lifestyle choices. Following this transition, her singles made the top ten with less frequency,[3] but she continued to record several times per year for her record label and remained a popular concert attraction.[4] One single of this period to miss the top ten was a 1970 top 20 recording titled "Where Is My Castle".[5] This would serve as the title to her next studio album. According to biographer Barry Mazor, Smith was emotionally-"sidelined" during the making of Where Is My Castle. Smith herself described the material she chose for the project as autobiographical of her emotions at the time: "Anybody knows, that it's cathartic to be able to sing how you feel about things."[6]

Smith entered the studio to record the selections for Where Is My Castle in the fall of 1970. She cut the album's material over the course of five studio sessions: September 23, September 28, October 6 and October 27. The sessions were recorded at RCA Victor Studios, located in Nashville, Tennessee and were produced by Bob Ferguson. Five overdub sessions were also recorded that featured a vocal chorus performed by four background singers.[7] The album consisted of ten tracks.[1][8] Billboard magazine described the album as having a "traditional country flavor".[2] Songs recorded for the album featured background instrumentation from fiddle and steel guitar.[6]

Four cuts by songwriter Dallas Frazier were recorded during for the project. According to Frazier, many of the album's songs he penned for Smith were reflective of her personal life: "When you're close to people, they always influence your writing," he recounted in 2012.[6] Among the songs by Frazier was the title track,[8] which has been claimed to have been written about Smith's two failed marriages up to that point.[6] Other new recordings included Frazier's "Darling Days", "Too Good to Be True" and the Conway Twitty-penned "I'm So Used to Loving You".[8][6]

Smith also recorded several covers for the project including Twitty's "Hello Darlin'". According to Mazor, Twitty performed the song to Smith first before releasing his own version as a single. She also covered Roger Miller's "When a House Is Not a Home" and Merle Haggard's gospel selection titled "Jesus Take a Hold".[6] Smith would end up re-recording the track for her 2021 album The Cry of the Heart and explain her reasoning for doing so to The New York Times: "It’s just as relevant today as it was back then, if not more so."[9] A second gospel song was also included titled "Clinging to a Saving Hand".[6] Another cover song Smith cut for the project was "Before I'm Over You",[8] which was originally a top five country single for Loretta Lynn.[5]

Where Is My Castle was released in January 1971 on the RCA Victor label. It became the seventeenth studio project released in Smith's career. The label originally released it as a vinyl LP, with five songs on each side of the record.[8] Decades later, the album was re-released for downloading and streaming through the Sony Music Entertainment label.[10] Following its original release, the album received a positive response by Billboard magazine. Reviewers described "Before I'm Over You", "Clinging to a Saving Hand" and "Hello Darlin" as "outstanding tunes".[2] Where Is My Castle spent five weeks on the American Billboard Top Country Albums chart, peaking at the number 39 position in February 1971. It was Smith's lowest-charting Billboard album up to that point in her career.[11] The title track was the only single included on the disc and was first released by RCA Victor in December 1970.[12] It spent 14 weeks on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, peaking at number 11 in March 1971. It was Smith's sixth single to reach the top 20.[13] The single also became her third to enter Canada's RPM Country chart, peaking at number 20.[14]

All credits are adapted from the liner notes of Where Is My Castle[8] and the biography booklet by Barry Mazor titled Just for What I Am.[15]