page_title: Andy Russell (singer)
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Andy Russell (singer) / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: Roosevelt High School, Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, California, USA.
context_page_description: Andy Russell was an American popular vocalist, actor, and entertainer of Mexican descent, specializing in traditional pop and Latin music. He sold 8 million records in the 1940s singing in a romantic, baritone voice and in his trademark bilingual English and Spanish style. He had chart-busters, such as "Bésame Mucho", "Amor", and "What a Diff'rence a Day Made". He made personal appearances and performed on radio programs, most notably Your Hit Parade, in several movies, and on television. During this initial phase of his career, his popularity in the United States rivaled that of crooners Frank Sinatra and Perry Como.
  In 1954, he relocated to Mexico where he became a star of radio, television, motion pictures, records and nightclubs. He toured extensively throughout Latin America, Spain, Portugal and Cuba, and hosted the television variety program El Show de Andy Russell in Argentina from 1956–65.
  Upon returning to the United States, Russell continued to record. His 1967 single "It's Such a Pretty World Today" reached #1 on Billboard Magazine's Easy Listening Chart.
context_section_description: Russell was born September 16, 1919 (Mexican Independence Day) as Andrés Rábago in Boyle Heights, which, at the time, was an ethnically integrated, middle-class neighborhood  in Eastside Los Angeles. He was the second youngest of ten children (eight boys, two girls)  born to Mexican immigrant parents, Rafael Rábago and Vicenta (née Pérez), who had emigrated to United States in 1902 from the Mexican states of Durango and Chihuahua, where each had been born, respectively.  His father was employed as an extra by Hollywood studios, while his mother was a housewife.
  As a child, he loved listening to American popular music and Big Band, such as Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey. He idolized crooners Dick Powell, Bing Crosby and Jack Leonard. He went wild over popular music, knew all the hit tunes, and was the neighborhood authority on every name band leader in the country. While attending school, he also worked as a newspaper vendor at a corner in downtown L.A.
  He grew up in a bilingual home, hearing and talking Spanish with his parents, while talking English with his brothers and sisters, and people outside of the home. His parents enjoyed listening to Mexican music, in particular, mariachi. At this young age, Russell did not appreciate the music of Mexico, nor did he fully comprehend the Spanish language . He felt so frustrated that he would ask his parents to speak to him in English. Moreover, in an interview from 1967, he poignantly stated that he was only able to learn a little Spanish from his parents due to the fact that they had died when he was just 11 years old.
  Despite these growing pains, he was determined to follow in the footsteps of his idols. In 1934, as a 15-year-old student in junior high school, he began his career as an up-and-coming teenage idol by singing with a local swing band headed by don Ramón Cruz. This band was composed mainly of Mexican and Mexican American musicians and played primarily in East Los Angeles. He also sang with the Stan Kenton Orchestra, and other groups, until one day he was told that he also would have to play an instrument to stay with the band. Russell recalled how he dealt with this curious dilemma:
  They said to me one night and broke my heart, they says, "Andy, we can't afford to have you as just a singer. You've got to play some instrument." I said, "But, gee, I'm a singer." And they said, "Yeah, we're paying you two dollars, two-fifty a night and it's too much. You know, the guys wanna split the rest of the money." So I said, "What can I learn in a hurry so I can join the band? ... Drums would be the easiest thing." So I got a bunch of the old records and started to learn to play drums. Down in the cellar, I'd learn to play drums and keep good time. This was when I was in junior high and I was learning to play drums. Later on, I got a teacher to teach me how to read, and before you knew it, I took drums seriously and I became one of the top drummers on the east side of L.A.--swing drummers. And I was playing drums with all these bands and then I'd sing. 
  — Source, Loza, Steven. 1993.Barrio Rhythm:  Mexican American Music in Los Angeles, University of Illinois Press., p.144
  Russell took drum lessons for 50 cents a lesson at the Phillips Music Company on Brooklyn Avenue (now Avenida César Chávez) in Boyle Heights. This neighborhood music store was owned by William Phillips, a Jewish-American Navy veteran, drummer, and musician.  By practicing in the basement of his house and during breaks at his part-time job, he quickly became an excellent drummer.
  Stella Cruz, the sister of bandleader don Ramón Cruz, recalled in a YouTube video that Russell, as a child, had contracted polio and had some paralysis in his left arm and leg. When this came to the attention of don Ramón Cruz, he taught Russell to play the bass drum in order to strengthen those muscles. This may have been Russell's initial exposure to the instrument.
  Russell attended Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights, where he continued his musical education. He was a member of the ROTC marching band, the jazz band
caption: Russell attended Roosevelt High School.
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