"Here we come, walkin' down the street, get the funniest looks from, everyone we meet, hey hey we're..." That's Leon on piano.
He wrote hundreds of songs, including "Superstar" (the Carpenters) and "This Masquerade" (George Benson). I really mean this: scroll through this rather astounding list of artists who have recoded his songs, and bear in mind that's just a sample. I'll wait here. I promise.
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/leon-russell-mn0000816387/credits See what I mean? As a pianist, guitarist and Producer of the "Wrecking Crew," the legendary studio musicians who played on countless albums and movie soundtracks, (
http://www.wreckingcrew.tv/) he was an essential part of Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" and was Brian Wilson's collaborator, providing "Good Vibrations" "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" "Gentle On My Mind" "On The Road Again" "A Taste of Honey" Joe Cocker's "With A Little Help From My Friends" "Layla" "I'm a Believer" "Da Doo Ron Ron" "Help Me, Rhonda" "Mr. Tambourine Man" "Surf City" Dean Martin's "Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime" and on and on. By the way, the bassist for all those thousands of songs, commercials and soundtracks was a woman, Carol Kaye. Worth looking up -
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Kaye Leon Russell was one of the most recorded pianists in history. It's estimated that he played on over 15,000 recordings. He played with everyone from Sinatra and the Rat Pack to the Monkees, Ray Charles, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Derek and the Dominoes and the Beach Boys. He performed at Woodstock and George Harrison's "Concert For Bangladesh." He toured with Willie, Johnny and Waylon and had a long friendship with Merle Haggard.
Elton John considered Leon to be his primary influence, and enlisted Cameron Crowe to film the documentary "The Union" about writing and recording an album with his hero.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Union_(2011_film It's one of my favorite music documentaries, because it's vivid chronicle of the sheer affection they felt for each other, which was channeled directly into music. And we get to watch.
Whether they know it or not, everyone has heard Leon Russell countless times. Nobody really knows the extent of his accomplishments, or ever will, because he was such a humble, nice Okie boy he didn't keep track. The big secret of his success was that he didn't like "showing off." So much so that he adopted a stage name as a young man, because as he admitted later; "I didn't want my relatives to be embarrassed by my failure as a farmer."
That's a life well lived. Godspeed, Claude R. Bridges. You will live on.
