Born on this day ...

[Ruby]

Russ Ballard was born on this day in 1945 in Hertfordshire, England. He first came to prominence when he joined Argent and wrote “God Gave Rock n Roll to You” which became a hit not only for them, but for KISS as well. Ace Frehley went on to record Ballard’s “New York Groove” to some acclaim and he also wrote two of the songs on Peter Criss’s solo album.

He has a great rock voice and was incredibly adept at, and well suited to that seventies power ballad/anthemic type of thing. His album At The Third Stroke is still listenable, despite being a bit OTT at times – but hey – it was 1978 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaFMZUV6k4g. He released an album this year titled It's Good to be Here, which I haven't heard at all ... yet. He always was a good guitarist too, however, at least up until now, is probably more notable for his songwriting skills which seem to have proven fortuitous, indeed, for many other artists.

He wrote Rainbow’s “Since You Been Gone”, and “I Surrender” - [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ29pVhsdMs"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ29pVhsdMs
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Rescued America’s flagging career with “You can do Magic” - [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb8Sa0jp7Pw"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb8Sa0jp7Pw
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And here’s that Argent track –

[video=youtube;QsG5V-o6uxY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsG5V-o6uxY[/video]