In the 1970s R and J Stone

This was a husband and wife duo which had a moderate success in the charts of the 1970s. Russell Oliver was born in Norwich in 1946 and in the 1960s actually worked in the chorus of The Black And White Minstrel Show. He also worked as a session singer for huge stars of the 1970s including Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, as well as doing numerous commercial voice overs and station idents.

Along with his wife Joanna Stone they produced a great single called We Do It which they wrote themselves. The single was produced by Phil Swern who also had 1970 hits with The Pearls with their hit Guilty and Polly Brown, who had hits Up In A Puff Of Smoke and a cover of Abba’s Honey Honey.

Phil now works on the Pick of the Pops show on BBC Radio 2.

We Do It was a great hit for the group, but it would really be their only big chart hit, and Russell actually gave up the idea of performing and went into writing.
But the song is still remembered for its amazingly catchy chorus.

His wife Joanna Stone unfortunately died in 1979 from a brain tumour. As a duo they released only two albums and five singles. The albums were called We Do It and RJ both on the RCA label.