Johnny Russell
Musician · 1940–2001 · Moorhead, Mississippi
Best known for
Songwriter
Johnny Russell was a Mississippi-born country songwriter, singer, and comedian whose “Act Naturally” became a No. 1 country single for Buck Owens in 1963 and a Beatles cover two years later. He went on to a steady run on the country charts in the 1970s and a long tenure as a Grand Ole Opry favorite known for his stage humor and his outsized physical presence.
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- Born John Bright Russell on January 23, 1940, in Moorhead, Mississippi.
- Moved with his family to Fresno, California, at age eleven; began writing songs and entering talent contests while at Fresno High School, from which he graduated in 1958.
- Placed his first published song, “In a Mansion Stands My Love,” on the A-side of the single; Jim Reeves’s “He’ll Have to Go” was the B-side that radio flipped into a 1960 No. 1 hit.
- Wrote “Act Naturally,” which Buck Owens took to No. 1 country in 1963 and the Beatles covered in 1965 as the B-side of “Yesterday.”
- Took a staff-writer position at the Wilburn Brothers’ Nashville publishing house in the late 1960s.
- Signed to RCA by Chet Atkins in 1971; landed his first Top 20 country single, “Catfish John,” in 1973.
- Scored his biggest hit later that year with “Rednecks, White Socks and Blue Ribbon Beer,” which reached the country Top 5.
- Songs covered by Gene Watson, Burl Ives, Jim Reeves, Jerry Garcia, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Loretta Lynn, and Linda Ronstadt, among others.
- Died July 3, 2001, at age 61.
