American pop lyricist and Songwriters Hall of Fame member Bob Russell was an active Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood songwriter during the 1940s and 1950s and wrote such pop songs as "Do Nothin' Till You Hear from Me" and "Don't Get Around Much Anymore." Born Sidney Keith Russell in Passaic, NJ, in 1914, he enjoyed his first hit songs in 1940 with "Frenesi," "Marie Elena," and "Brazil" on the Lucky Strike Parade. Some of his best-known songs are "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" (1942), "Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me" (1943), "I Didn't Know About You" (1944), "Dance Ballerina Dance" (1947), "You Came a Long Way From St. Louis" (1948), "Crazy He Calls Me," and "It's the Beast in Me." Over the years, Russell collaborated with a number of songwriters, including Duke Ellington, Harry Warren, Carl Sigman, and Lester Lee, with whom Russell penned songs for films such as Blue Gardenia, Reach for Glory, Jack and the Beanstalk, and the theme song for The Girl Most Likely. The songs that Russell co-wrote with Quincy Jones -- "The Eyes of Love" for the film Banning and "For the Love of Ivy" from the movie of the same name -- garnered the songwriters Academy Award nominations in 1968 and 1969. 1969 also brought Russell's final song: "He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother." ~ Joslyn Layne, Rovi
