Leon Russell's recordings earned six gold records and he received two Grammy Awards from seven nominations.
64 Facts About Leon Russell
2.
One of his early fans, Elton John, said that Leon Russell was a "mentor" and an "inspiration".
3.
Leon Russell wrote and recorded the hits "Tight Rope" and "Lady Blue".
4.
Leon Russell performed at The Concert for Bangladesh in 1971, along with Harrison, Dylan, and Clapton; for this he earned a Grammy Award.
5.
Leon Russell was born in Lawton, Oklahoma, on April 2,1942.
6.
Leon Russell began playing the piano at the age of four.
7.
Leon Russell attended Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as did David Gates, with whom he had an early collaboration as The Fencemen.
8.
Leon Russell began his musical career at the age of 14, in 1956, in the nightclubs of Tulsa.
9.
Leon Russell was known mostly as a session musician early in his career.
10.
Leon Russell played piano on many Phil Spector productions, including recordings by the Ronettes, the Crystals, and Darlene Love and in the 1963 A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector album.
11.
Leon Russell played xylophone and bells on the 1966 single "The Joker Went Wild", sung by Brian Hyland and written by Bobby Russell.
12.
Leon Russell contributed to recording sessions with Dorsey Burnette and with Glen Campbell, whose 1967 album Gentle on My Mind credited him as "Russell Bridges" on piano, and arranged and conducted the 1966 easy listening album Rhapsodies for Young Lovers by the Midnight String Quartet.
13.
Leon Russell co-produced and arranged hits by Tom Northcott, including "Sunny Goodge Street" in 1967, written by Donovan.
14.
Leon Russell released his first solo single, "Everybody's Talking 'Bout the Young", for Dot Records in 1965.
15.
Leon Russell operated from 1969 to 1981, with offices in Los Angeles and Tulsa.
16.
The "Leon Russell" album had a number of guest vocalist and accompaniment: Chris Stainton, Bonnie Bramlett, Greg Dempsey, Bob Dylan, Marc Benno, Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Joe Cocker, and Merry Clayton.
17.
Also in 1970, Leon Russell played piano on Dave Mason's album Alone Together, notably on the song "Sad and Deep as You".
18.
In November 1970, Leon Russell performed at the Fillmore East, with Elton John on the same bill.
19.
Leon Russell's album Prince of Peace: Radio Broadcast 1970 is a soundboard recording of a concert at Fillmore East in late 1970.
20.
Leon Russell produced some tracks for Bob Dylan in March 1971 when Dylan was experimenting with his new sound.
21.
At the invitation of George Harrison, Leon Russell played piano on Badfinger's third album, Straight Up in the summer of 1971.
22.
Leon Russell performed piano, vocals, bass and backing vocals at the two shows of the war-refugees' benefit on August 1,1971.
23.
Bob Dylan surprised Leon Russell by asking him to play bass for some of Dylan's portion of the concert; Leon Russell and Harrison sang harmonies on the chorus of "Just Like a Woman".
24.
Leon Russell helped the blues guitarist Freddie King revive his career by collaborating on three of King's albums for Shelter Records during the early 1970s.
25.
Leon Russell recorded the song "Get a Line on You" at Olympic Studios in October 1969, with contributions from Mick Jagger, Ringo Starr, and probably Bill Wyman and Mick Taylor.
26.
In 1972, Leon Russell did a concert tour with his Shelter People entourage.
27.
Leon Russell purchased multiple properties in the early 1970s in his home state of Oklahoma, including the historic The Church Studio in 1972 located on the corner of 3rd Street and Trenton in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
28.
Leon Russell helped the Gap Band, a trio of Tulsa brothers, kick off their chart success in 1974.
29.
Leon Russell made it into the 1975 Top 40 with "Lady Blue", from his album Will o' the Wisp.
30.
Leon Russell departed Shelter Records in 1976 to start his own record label, Paradise Records.
31.
In 1976, Leon Russell released the Wedding Album, a studio album with his then wife, Mary Leon Russell, otherwise known as Mary McCreary.
32.
In 1978, Leon Russell released his Americana album on the Warner Bros.
33.
Leon Russell built and owned Paradise Studios in Burbank, California; the recording studio had two audio sound stages and one television production stage.
34.
Leon Russell released Life And Love, an album on Paradise Records, in 1979.
35.
Leon Russell spent 1980 and 1981 touring with the New Grass Revival, releasing two more albums with Paradise Records before the label folded.
36.
On May 1,1982 Leon Russell played at Joe Ely's Third Annual Tornado Jam in Lubbock, Texas to a crowd of 25,000.
37.
On May 15,1980, Russell joined with New Grass Revival to record a live album at Perkins Palace in Pasadena, California, released in 1981 as The Live Album.
38.
In 1982, Leon Russell played piano and percussion on New Grass Revival's Commonwealth album.
39.
Leon Russell released a country blues album, recorded in Hendersonville, Tennessee, at his Paradise Studios, called Solid State.
40.
In 1988 and 1989 Edgar Winter and Leon Russell went on a concert tour of the US and Canada.
41.
Leon Russell released Delta Lady on Del Rack Records in 1991.
42.
Leon Russell released a new album Anything Can Happen recorded at Paradise Studios, released on Virgin Records in 1991.
43.
Leon Russell released a new album Legend in My Time: Hank Wilson Vol.
44.
Leon Russell released Face in the Crowd in 1999, a blues album on Sagestone Entertainment Records.
45.
Also in 2000, Leon Russell Records released the rock album Crazy Love on CD.
46.
In 2001, Leon Russell teamed up with multi-instrumentalist Matt Harris to make the latter's album Slightly Elliptical Orbit.
47.
In 2002, Leon Russell released a 95-minute DVD titled "A Song for You", that features 25 Leon Russell classic songs from the Shelter People to 2001.
48.
In 2006, Leon Russell did a 12 city concert tour of the US.
49.
Leon Russell played at Diversafest, Tulsa's music conference and festival, in 2007.
50.
In Your Dreams was released on CD by Leon Russell Records in 2008, as was A Mighty Flood, a gospel album with original songs by him.
51.
On January 31,2010, Leon Russell joined the Zac Brown Band to play the song Chicken Fried at the Grammy Awards.
52.
In November 2009, Leon Russell worked with John and Bernie Taupin on The Union, a double album record credited equally to Leon Russell and John.
53.
The recordings were interrupted in January 2010 when Leon Russell was hospitalized and underwent surgery for a brain fluid leak, as well as treatment for heart failure and pneumonia.
54.
John and Leon Russell appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman.
55.
Leon Russell played in Willie Nelson's Fourth of July Picnic in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2013.
56.
Leon Russell had first played at the picnic in 1976.
57.
On June 23,2013, Leon Russell performed on the CMT Crossroads broadcast with Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, Jamey Johnson, Norah Jones, Ashley Monroe and Neil Young.
58.
On March 16,2015, a restored version of a previously unreleased 1974 documentary about Leon Russell, A Poem Is A Naked Person by filmmaker Les Blank, was screened at the South by Southwest Film Festival.
59.
Leon Russell had a nationwide concert tour in 2016 and was planning to tour into 2017.
60.
Leon Russell is interred at the Memorial Park Cemetery in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
61.
Leon Russell was a mentor, inspiration and so kind to me.
62.
Leon Russell's music takes me back to the most wonderful time in my life, and it makes me so angry that he's been forgotten.
63.
Leon Russell sang in a Southern accent but it was very blown-out and exaggerated, very free and loose.
64.
Leon Russell had six children: a daughter from a relationship with Carla McHenry; a son and daughter from his first marriage, to Mary McCreary; and three daughters from his later marriage to Janet Lee Constantine.