L. Russell Brown

Please don't confuse with jazz trombonist Russell Brown. Songwriter Lawrence Russell Brown was born in Newark, New Jersey, on June 29, 1940. He was lent a guitar when he was 15, which is when he learned to play and tried to learn how to read music. He enlisted in the US Army in the 1960s and toured Europe as part of the Distant Cousins, and after his return to the United States, he became a duo with Raymond Bloodworth, and they performed in Greenwich Village as part of the folk scene. His work was heard by the producer Bob Crewe and his career took off after that. He has written or co-written over 700 songs over four decades and has seen international chart success with hits such as “Knock Three Times,” “Tie a Yellow Ribbon ’Round the Ole Oak Tree,” “Butterfly (I’ll Set You Free),” and “Sock it to Me Gently.” He collaborated with artists who include Tommy Page, Irvine Levine, Raymond Bloodworth, and Lance Hayward. His music has been heard in many movies that include “A Kind of Hush,” “Forrest Gump,” “Wallace & Gromit in the Wrong Trousers,” “Blind Date,” and “An Officer and a Gentleman.”