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==Career==
Smith was born to an African American family in [[Troy, Alabama]] and raised in [[Birmingham, Alabama]].<ref name="Trail"/> He received his nickname as a child from his liking for climbing trees.<ref name="silvester">{{cite book |first=Peter J. |last=Silvester |title=The Story of Boogie-Woogie: A Left Hand Like God |url=https://archive.org/details/storyboogiewoogi00silv |url-access=limited |year=1989 |publisher=[[Scarecrow Press]] |pages=[https://archive.org/details/storyboogiewoogi00silv/page/n80 66]–73 |isbn=978-0810869240}}</ref> In 1920 he moved to [[Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]],<ref name="edwards">{{cite journal |last=Edwards |first=James |title=Innovators: Pine Top Smith |journal=Western Pennsylvania History |volume=90 |issue=3 |pages=6–7 |publisher=[[Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania]] |date= Fall 2007 |issn=1525-4755}}</ref> where he worked as an entertainer before touring on the [[Theatre Owners Booking Association]] (T.
In the mid-1920s, he was recommended by [[Cow Cow Davenport]] to [[J. Mayo Williams]] at [[Vocalion Records]], and in 1928 he moved, with his wife and young son, to [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]] to record.<ref name="Trail"/> For a time he, [[Albert Ammons]], and [[Meade Lux Lewis]] lived in the same rooming house.<ref name="Devil">{{cite book|title=The Devil's Music|author=Giles Oakley|publisher=[[Da Capo Press]]|page=159/160|isbn=978-0-306-80743-5|date=1997|url=https://archive.org/details/devilsmusichisto00oakl_0|url-access=limited}}</ref>
On December 29, 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.<ref name="Devil"/> It was also the first recording to have the phrase 'boogie woogie' in the song's title.<ref>{{cite book|title=Deep Blues|author=Robert Palmer|year=1981|authorlink=Robert Palmer (writer)|publisher=[[Penguin Books]]|page=[https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/131 131]|isbn=978-0-14-006223-6|url=https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/131}}</ref> Smith talks over the recording, telling how to dance to the number.<ref name="Music">{{cite book
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| page= 165}}</ref> He said he originated the number at a [[rent party|house-rent party]] in [[St. Louis, Missouri]]. Smith was the first ever to direct "the girl with the red dress on" to "not move a peg" until told to "shake that thing" and "mess around". Similar lyrics are heard in many later songs, including "[[Mess Around]]" and "[[What'd I Say]]" by [[Ray Charles]].
Smith was scheduled to make another recording session for Vocalion in 1929, but died from a gunshot wound in a dance-hall fight in Chicago the day before the session.<ref name="Trail">{{cite web |url=http://www.thebluestrail.com/artists/mus_cs.htm |title=Clarence Pinetop Smith |website=The Blues Trail |access-date=August 22, 2017}}</ref><ref name="Devil"/>
No photographs of Smith are known to exist.<ref name="silvester"/>
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