Smith was born in Troy, Alabama and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. He worked for some time as an entertainer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, then toured on the TOBA Vaudeville circuit. For a time he worked as accompanist for blues singer Ma Rainey.
In the late 1920s he settled in Chicago, Illinois. For a time he, Albert Ammons, and Meade Lux Lewis lived in the same Chicago rooming house.
In 1928 he recorded his influential "Pine Top's Boogie Woogie", one of the first "boogie woogie" style recordings to make a hit, and which cemented the name for the style. Pine Top talks over the recording, telling how to dance to the number. He said he originated the number at a house-rent party in Saint Louis, Missouri.
He was scheduled to make another recording session for Vocalion Records, but was killed the night before. Williams died from a gunshot wound in a dance-hall fight in Chicago. Sources differ as to whether he was the intended recipient of the bullet.
External Link