The Melbourne singer whose psychedelic epic 'The Real Thing' became a landmark of Australian pop history.
MOODS · nostalgic · triumphant · psychedelic · reflective
BIOGRAPHY
Russell Norman Morris was born 31 July 1948 in Richmond, Victoria, Australia. He began his career in September 1966 at age 18 as lead singer of the Melbourne group Somebody's Image, before launching a solo career that produced five Australian Top 10 singles in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
His single "Part Three Into Paper Walls" (a revisiting of "The Real Thing") paired with "The Girl That I Love" became a double-sided number one, marking the first time an Australian artist scored consecutive number ones with their first two singles. Morris continued recording into later decades, releasing A Thousand Suns in 1991 and, in 2014, Van Diemen's Land, which reached number 4 on the ARIA Charts, his highest-charting album.
WHY THEY'RE COOL
Russell Morris helped shape the sound of Australian pop as it moved from beat-group hits into more ambitious, psychedelic songwriting, with 'The Real Thing' standing as a genuine milestone: it was added to the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia registry in 2013. His induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2008 recognised a career spanning decades, from teenage chart-topper to elder statesman touring alongside fellow 1960s stars Ronnie Burns and Darryl Cotton, and later achieving his career-best chart placement with 2014's Van Diemen's Land.
