Andy Russell

Did you know?!

1. About the name

   A bandleader once told Andy Russell he would be called Russell, after Russell Columbo, a famous singer of that era who years earlier had taken Bing Crosby's place.

2. First role

   Russell began his career in 1934, when he was a 15-year-old junior high school student, by singing with a local swing band led by don Ramón Cruz.

3. Early training

   Russell got some old records and began learning drums, practicing down in the cellar and working on keeping good time.

4. A first

   Russell sang "Bésame Mucho" in both Spanish and English. He was the first vocalist to give popular songs Spanish and English treatments, often with an English chorus then a Spanish one.

5. A role that slipped away

   Tommy Dorsey offered Russell a job playing only drums because Dorsey already had a young Frank Sinatra as his singer, but Russell turned it down to concentrate on singing.

6. A first

   In 1967, Capitol put out Russell's follow-up album, "... Such a Pretty World Today", and from it came a #1 single, "It's Such a Pretty World Today", which held the top spot on Billboard's Easy Listening Chart for nine weeks.