Chart entered : 29 November 1957
Chart peak : 24
Number of hits : 20
Another , though very different from Jerry , pianist checked in at the end of 1957.
The 32-year old was originally Trevor Stanford from Bristol. He had a colourful education which included both winning a scholarship to Bristol Cathedral Choir School and spending three years in a borstal. He was conscripted into the navy in 1942 and won a Distinguished Service Medal for his participation in a minesweeping operation in the Aegean in 1944-5. He was eventually discharged due to a stomach ulcer. Russ is the last hit maker to have done any WWII service.
He was signed as a session musician by EMI Columbia and played on hits by Gracie Fields and Joan Regan before getting the chance to record this first solo disc.
Russ wasn't exactly bringing anything new to the table. Winifred Atwell had already enjoyed a number of hits with piano medleys and the 8 songs misappropriated here are in general earlier than the ones she chose. For the record they are: When You're Smiling, I'm Looking over a Four- Leafed Clover, When You Wore a Tulip, Row Row Row, For Me And My Gal, Shine On Harvest Moon , By the Light of the Silvery Moon and Side by Side. All date from the Twenties or earlier so this was aimed purely at mums and grans invited in by Russ's crocodilian grin on the cover. And I guess you always have that ; even when the charts are at their most progressive there'll be a Shakin' Stevens or Jive Bunny or Robson and Jerome looking in the opposite direction. This should really be called Pop's Party because it certainly isn't mine.
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