British guitarist/singer/songwriter Russ Ballard has an incredible body of work.
Ballard started his recording career as a member of Adam Faith & The Roulettes. Like Cliff Richard’s backing group, The Shadows, The Roulettes were also a stand-alone recording unit. Among others, Russ wrote Me Body for his band, &The Lost City for The Shadows (when he was 14 years old!)
Ballard & drummer Bob Henrit left The Roulettes, and briefly joined Unit Four Plus Two, and Ballard supplied them with Concrete & Clay. The pair played together for years until Bob Henrit replaced The Kinks’ original drummer Mick Avory in 1984, continuing with the group until their split in 1996.
Next, the two joined The Zombies’ leader Rod Argent in Argent—which was a fertile songwriting period for Ballard. He wrote God Gave Rock & Roll To You, and Liar while he was in the band. Three Dog Night’s live version of Liar starts things off here, & God Gave Rock & Roll To You was later covered by Kiss. Kiss members covered several of his compositions. One that didn’t make the cut was Peter Criss’ version of Let Me Rock You. Ace Frehley recorded both New York Groove, and Into The Night (which did).
For this collection, I used the original version of New York Groove by Hello, a song Ballard wrote in the studio—something he rarely did. Ballard tended to approach songwriting as a job—something he got up and did every day. He was signed to publishing deals that required him to write 20 songs a year; which his output easily met. And, after singing lead on the hits he penned for Argent, it was only natural that Ballard would go solo, releasing eight solid albums on major labels between 1974 & 1985.
While he never missed a step as a songwriter—other artists covering his songs generally had the bigger hits. Carlos Santana scored with Winning two years after Russ released his version. Since You Been Gone was covered by both Head East & (Ritchie Blackmore’s) Rainbow. It was impossible to choose between Rainbow’s version—and The Brian May Band’s live version—so both are included. May’s vocal is fantastic, as is his guitar playing.
But Ballard’s songs didn’t just attract guitarists. Some amazing singers snatched up Ballard compositions: The Zombies’ Colin Blunstone, Ian Lloyd, Roger Daltrey, and both Frida & Agnetha Faltskog of ABBA.
Two of Ballard’s most valuable copyrights are also here; America’s You Can Do Magic, & Hot Chocolate’s So You Win Again, which was a much bigger hit in Europe than the U.S. Along for the ride are Bad English, Night Ranger, Rare Earth, & Tokyo Blade.
