Ralph Peer directed him through several sessions for Okeh and Victor, and he freelanced on other labels such as Edison, Gennett and Paramount Records.
In 1926, through selling blues records in his store, he began working as a scout for the record companies producing the records, such as Okeh, Victor, Gennett, Columbia, Vocalion, Decca and Paramount.
In an earlier version of this song (Okeh, 1925) the banjo is even more remarkable in its halting rhythms, and the singer decided he would "rather be a lizzard sic..."
Most of these latter sides were made under the names of Synco Jazz Band (49 recordings during 1919-1922, mainly for Pathé but also for Columbia and Grey Gull), Joseph Samuels' Jazz Band (40 recordings during 1920-23, mainly for Okeh but also for Paramount) and Tampa Blue Jazz Band (31 recordings for Okeh during 1921-1923).
After the OKeh contract ended in September 1930, Russell recorded a handful of largely unremarkable sessions for Melotone, Brunswick and Victor.
Between 1929 and 1935, he made scores of records were issued under his own name for OKeh, the dime store labels (Banner, Domino, Jewel, Regal, Perfect, Oriole as Buddy Blue & His Texans or Jack Blue's Texans), Columbia, and Crown.
The first version, made April 16, 1952, was released on Columbia's Okeh label in 1952 (reaching #23 on the Billboard chart that year) and re-released four years later on Columbia (#67 on the 1956 chart.) A new recording was made in 1958, entering the Billboard Hot 100 list on November 24, 1958, eventually reaching #32 on that chart.