Leon Russell (born Claude Russell Bridges on April 2, 1942 in Lawton, Oklahoma, United States) is an American singer-songwriter, pianist, and guitarist.
Russell attended Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. and began his musical career as a session musician, quickly gaining experience and becoming a high-end keyboardist in demand to notable artists from the 1960s to the present.
By the late 1960s, Russell branched out, first to writing songs, and then working his way from gigs as a sideman to joining bands as a full member. Eventually, he moved into a solo recording position, although he never gave up all his previous roles within the music industry. "Superstar" is a 1969 song written by Bonnie Bramlett, Delaney Bramlett, and Leon Russell which has been a hit for many artists in different genres and interpretations in the years since; the best known version is by The Carpenters in 1971.
Accounts of the song's origin vary somewhat, but it grew out of the late 1969/early 1970 nexus of English and American musicians known as Delaney, Bonnie & Friends, that involved Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett, Leon Russell, Eric Clapton, and various others. The.