Trivia

Singer/songwriter/keyboardist. Recorded with former husband Brian Russell (b. 1944) as Brian and Brenda. Together they hosted the Toronto based TV show, "Music Machine".

Several songs originally written and recorded by her have been made famous when covered by other artists, eg If Only For One Night (covered by Luther Vandross), Dinner With Gershwin (though written by Brenda it was originally recorded by Donna Summer in 1987 but Brenda did record her own version in 1990) and most notably Get Here (a worldwide smash for Oleta Adams in 1991). She has also written songs for Roberta Flack, Earth Wind & Fire, Michael McDonald and Stevie Wonder.

Has one daughter, Lindsay Walker.

She and Joe Esposito had a lone top 5 hit "Piano In The Dark" in 1988.

Was diagnosed with diabetes in 2004.

Daughter of musical parents: her father was singer/musician Augustine "Gus" Gordon (1926-2019) and her mother, Nancy Cinnamon Sharpe (b. 1928), is a singer/songwriter.

Greatly inspired by The Beatles while growing up, she credits them as her earliest and most important songwriting influence. Russell would later dedicate her 1981 album "Love Life" to the memory of John Lennon.

Became a grandmother on 26 January 2007, when daughter Lindsay gave birth to a son, Nehimiah.

Her 8th studio album "Between the Sun and the Moon" is released in the UK on Dome records. She is also co-writing (with Allee Willis and Stephen Bray) music and lyrics for the forthcoming musical adaptation of Alice Walker's The Color Purple (due for Broadway opening in the spring of 2005). (May 2004)

As well as working on a new album for Dome Records, she is one of the composers on the forthcoming musical adaption of Alice Walker's The Color Purple (due for Broadway opening in the fall of 2004) (March 2004)