From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

L. Russell Brown

American songwriter (born 1940)

Field	Value
name	L. Russell Brown
background	non_performing_personnel
birth_name	Lawrence Russell Brown
birth_date
birth_place	Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
genre	Traditional pop, rock and roll
occupation	Songwriter
associated_acts	The Four Seasons
Tony Orlando and Dawn

Tony Orlando and Dawn

Lawrence "Larry" Russell Brown (born June 29, 1940), known as L. Russell Brown, is an American lyricist and composer. He is most noted for his songs, co-written with Irwin Levine, "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" and "Knock Three Times"—international hits for the 1970s pop music group Tony Orlando and Dawn. He also co-wrote "C'mon Marianne" for The Four Seasons, and "I Woke Up In Love This Morning" for The Partridge Family in 1971.

Biography

Born in Newark, New Jersey, Brown began his songwriting career when he was sixteen with the R&B label Fury Records. Co-writing with Ray Bloodworth in the mid-1960s, and working for Bob Crewe, "C'mon Marianne" featured in Jersey Boys, the Broadway musical. With Crewe, Brown also wrote "Sock It to Me Baby!", a 1967 hit for Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels.

Brown started writing with Irwin Levine in 1970, and found success with several hits for the singing group Tony Orlando and Dawn, including "Knock Three Times", "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" - both songs reaching #1 in the US and UK – and "Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose". "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" appears in such films as Wallace and Gromitt, Fargo, and Forrest Gump, and has reputedly been recorded over one thousand times. One of Brown's later successes as a writer was "Use It Up and Wear It Out", co-written with Sandy Linzer, which was a #1 hit in the UK for Odyssey in 1980.

Other musicians who have recorded his songs include Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Lesley Gore, Ray Conniff, Johnny Mathis, and Donny Osmond.

Copyright lawsuit

A copyright lawsuit against Dua Lipa by songwriters Brown and Sandy Linzer "claimed that Levitating infringed on their 1979 disco song Wiggle and Giggle All Night".

References

[http://secondhandsongs.com/artist/4521 L. Russell Brown, ''SecondhandSongs.com'']
Paulson, Dave. "Story Behind the Song: 'Tie a Yellow Ribbon'".
[http://sandyleesongfest.com/l-russell-brown-bio/ Biography, ''Sandy Lee Watkins Songwriting Festival'', 2015]. Retrieved October 19, 2015
he wrote the hits "C'mon Marianne" and "Watch the Flowers Grow" for the Four Seasons.[http://www.musicvf.com/songs.php?page=artist&artist=L.+Russell+Brown&tab=songaswriterchartstab Songs written by L. Russell Brown, ''MusicVF.com'']. Retrieved October 19, 2015
[http://www.classicbands.com/LRussellBrownInterview.html Gary James, "Interview with L. Russell Brown", ''ClassicBands.com'']. Retrieved October 19, 2015
Kreps, Daniel. (March 6, 2022). "Dua Lipa Hit With Second Copyright Lawsuit Over 'Levitating'".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1940-births living-people musicians-from-newark,-new-jersey american-lyricists american-male-composers 21st-century-american-composers songwriters-from-new-jersey 21st-century-american-male-musicians american-male-songwriters

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about L. Russell Brown — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report