A correction: "Beautiful Brown Eyes" was a number 2 song in 1949. The song was the best selling Country song of 1951 according to Wolfe. Apparently Alton received $1,500 for his song writing credit, given to him when he complained that he wrote the song. Apparently song was copyrighted under his name and Smith's in 1937.
Unknown at the time, was another exsisting version (Gordon manuscript)found in the 20s. Both Smith and Alton heard teh song somewhere and arranged but since it was the first recording, as was customary practice- they claimed authorship.