Perhaps not a household name – and arguably, that fact is bordering on criminal – Leon Russell started playing clubs in Tulsa while still in his mid-teens, as rock ‘n’ roll itself was being born. By his early 20s, he was a member of the hallowed LA studio band the Wrecking Crew, both with and without Phil Spector. Leon played with the Byrds, Mamas and Papas, Beach Boys, Sonny and Cher and many others. As an arranger, he shaped the sound of such timeless singles as Ike and Tina Turner’s River Deep, Mountain High, Herb Alpert’s A Taste of Honey and the Byrds’ Mr Tambourine Man.
By the late 60s, Russell was coming into his own both as a recording artist (recording with Texas musician Marc Benno under the name the Asylum Choir) and as a writer. Joe Cocker’s recording of his sassy Delta Lady (written about Leon’s girlfriend of the time, Rita Coolidge) became a UK top ten hit. Russell subsequently lead the band on Cocker’s Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour and appeared in the movie of the same name.
Leon’s 1970 solo debut album featured a cast of admiring stars including Cocker, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, three Stones (Messrs Jagger, Wyman and Watts) and two Beatles (George and Ringo). Russell also appeared at George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh, before reaching his own commercial peak in 1972, when the Carney album spent a month at number two in the Billboard chart.
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