Career
Between 1966 and 1973, he charted five singles on the Hot Country Songs charts, including the crossover popular hit "Saturday Morning Confusion." Russell was also married to singer and actress Vicki Lawrence from 1972 to 1974. He wrote the song "Honey", which was a hit for Bobby Goldsboro in 1968, spending five weeks at the top of the Billboard People’s Chart. Russell wrote the ballad "Do You Know Who I Am", which was recorded by Elvis Presley during his 1969 Memphis sessions when he also cut "In The Ghetto" and "Suspicious Minds".
Russell penned "The Joker Went Wild", a hit on Billboard Top 40 for Brian Hyland in 1966.
Russell also penned "Anabell Of Mobile" for Nancy Sinatra. The Russell composition "Camp Werthahekahwee" appeared on a 1986 album from Ray Stevens.
The concept of the song deals with the inability of the natives to find their way home, so the natives set up their homes in the middle of nowhere after getting lost. The name of the camp, of course, is pronounced "where the heck are we?" and it was started by an Indian chief whose name also escapes the father.
As a performer As a singer, his biggest chart his was his self-penned "Saturday Morning Confusion", a top 25 country hit and Number.
28 popular hit in the early fall of 1971. The song was a first-person account of a family man suffering from a hangover (after having partied with "the boys" the night before) and trying to find peace and quiet to sleep it off, but constantly being henpecked by the kids, wife and neighbors. Other songs that Russell recorded himself were "1432 Franklin Pike Circle Hero", "Foreign a While We Helped Each Other Out", "Our Love Will Rise Again", and "Mid American Manufacturing Tycoon".
He also wrote and recorded "Summer Sweet" for the Disney live-action Rascal (1969) and wrote and sang the title song "As Far As I"m Concerned" over the opening credits of The Grasshopper.
Russell died in Nicholasville, Kentucky of coronary artery disease, on November 19, 1992. He was 52 years old.