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About Russell Morris
Russell Morris is one of Australia’s oldest singers. He rose to fame as a pop sensation in the late 1960s and later established himself as one of the nation’s first singer/songwriters. The music to the film The Dish primarily includes songs from both ends of his career.
With the founding of the Melbourne band Somebody’s Image in September 1966, Morris’ career got underway. This group became well-known thanks to a local smash cover of the Joe South song “Hush.” Morris was persuaded to quit Somebody’s Image in order to pursue a solo career. An extraordinary amount of time and money was invested by his manager and producer, local music icon Ian Meldrum, to build a seven-minute production extravaganza for the song “The Real Thing.” It was up to Morris’ personality, singing, and performing skills to make the record work after the outcome was revealed to stunned radio programmers who had never been requested to play such a lengthy Australian single before. In June 1969, it rose to the top spot in Australia. “The Real Thing” debuted at number one in Chicago, Houston, and New York without any marketing by Morris.
The second single—”Part Three Into Paper Walls” (“The Real Thing” revisited) and “The Girl That I Love” (a pop ballad more prologue to what was to come)—became a double-sided number one success, marking the first time an Australian artist had achieved consecutive number ones with their first two singles. Morris had gone to the UK in the interim to support the launch of “The Real Thing.”
Morris had now made the conscious decision to focus on his own work, and he spent nearly a year methodically recording and re-recording what would eventually become the Bloodstone album with the best Australian musicians. It was one of the first albums of its kind from Australia, the first by an Australian artist, and a far cry from the grandiose “The Real Thing.” The emotional, erotically charged “Sweet Sweet Love” was Bloodstone’s top-charting single. Morris followed that up with the similarly stunning “Wings of an Eagle” the following year, in 1972.
Morris relocated to London in 1973 to record an album but found there was no record deal waiting for him. He moved to New York and started working on an album there, which included new renditions of “Let’s Do It,” “Sweet Sweet Love,” and “Wings of an Eagle.” In 1976, a second American record was released. Morris had to wait two more years before receiving his green card, which allowed him to travel the country. But at that point, all prospects for an American career were vanished. Instead, Morris came back to an Australia that was drastically different from the one he had left behind five years prior.
Morris performed only a few live gigs without his own band during his solo career. After that, he started the Russell Morris Band and launched himself into a hectic schedule of live concerts. He wrote songs with live performance in mind rather than radio exposure in mind, but he did manage to score a few modest singles along the way. In the end, the group performed and made music as Russell Morris & the Rubes.
Another solo album by Morris, A Thousand Suns, was released in 1991. Morris then spent the next years performing in a highly successful trio with fellow Zoot members Ronnie Burns and Darryl Cotton. The group’s set list included both old favorites from the 1960s and brand-new compositions. Burns was replaced in 2001 by Jim Keays of the Masters Apprentices. The Australian film The Dish, which is centered on a man’s moon landing, featured Morris’ “The Real Thing” and “Wings of an Eagle” prominently. Midnight Oil also released their cover of “The Real Thing” as a one-off single in 2001, marking the first time this highly regarded band had chosen to record a cover.
