On Valentine's Day 1920, Mamie Smith made the first blues recording by a black artist, and the first record by a black woman. Issued by the Okeh Label, Smith recorded two of Bradford's songs, That Thing Called Love and You Can't Keep a Good Man Down. Okeh records refused to release the album, believing that there was no market for black records. But the record leaked to dealers, circulated underground, and became immensely popular. Perry Bradford's persistence and the underground success of the record combined to persuade Okeh records to officially release Smith and Bradford's Crazy Blues on August 10, 1920. Crazy Blues took music industry by storm. The success of Crazy Blues prompted Okeh records to launch a new "race records" series. Other labels soon followed suit.