Wynonie Harris
Wynonie Harris | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Born | Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. | August 24, 1915
Died | June 14, 1969 Los Angeles, California, U.S. | (aged 53)
Genres | |
Occupation(s) | Singer |
Years active | 1935–1969 |
Wynonie Harris (August 24, 1915
His dirty blues repertoire included "Lolly Pop Mama" (1948),[6] "I Like My Baby's Pudding" (1950),[7] "Sittin on It All the Time" (1950),[7] "Keep On Churnin' (Till the Butter Comes)" (1952),[8] and "Wasn't That Good" (1953).[8]
Biography
This section needs additional citations for verification. (January 2018) |
Early life and family
Harris's mother, Mallie Hood Anderson, was fifteen and unmarried at the time of his birth. His paternity is uncertain. His wife, Olive E. Goodlow, and daughter, Patricia Vest, said that his father was a Native American named Blue Jay. Wynonie had no father figure in his family until 1920, when his mother married Luther Harris, fifteen years her senior.
In 1931, at age 16, Harris dropped out of high school in
In 1935 Harris, age 20, started dating 16-year-old Olive E. (Ollie) Goodlow, of
Early career
Harris formed a dance team with Velda Shannon in the early 1930s.
While performing at Jim Bell's Club Harlem nightclub with Shannon, he began to sing the blues. He began traveling frequently to Kansas City, where he paid close attention to blues shouters, including Jimmy Rushing and Big Joe Turner. His break in Los Angeles was at a nightclub owned by Curtis Mosby. It was here that Harris became known as "Mr. Blues".
With Lucky Millinder
During the
They moved on to New York City, where on April 7 Harris took the stage with Millinder's band for his debut at the Apollo Theatre, in Harlem. It was during this performance that Harris first publicly performed "Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well" (a song recorded two years earlier by Doc Wheeler's Sunset Orchestra).
After the band's stint at the Apollo, they moved on to their regular residency at the Savoy Ballroom, also in Harlem. Here, Preston Love, Harris's childhood friend, joined Millinder's band, replacing the alto saxophonist Tab Smith. On May 26, 1944, Harris made his recording debut with Lucky Millinder and His Orchestra. Entering a recording studio for the first time, Harris sang on two of the five cuts recorded that day, "Hurry, Hurry" and "Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well", for Decca Records. The embargo on shellac during World War II had not yet been rescinded, and release of the record was delayed.
Harris's success and popularity grew as Millinder's band toured the country, but he and Millinder had a falling out over money, and in September 1945, while playing in
In April 1945, a year after the song was recorded, Decca released "Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well".
In California the success of the song opened doors for Harris. Since the contract with Decca was with Millinder, Harris was a free agent and could choose from the recording contracts with which he was presented.
Solo career
In July 1945, Harris signed with
Harris went on to record sessions for other labels, including
Some reviewers state that "Good Rocking Tonight", by Roy Brown (1947) or by Harris (1948)[12] is one of the contenders for the title of "first rock'n'roll record".[13] The label of the 45 RPM record by Brown included the words "Rocking blues".[14] According to the Paul McCartney Project, "Harris's version was even more energetic than Brown's original version, featuring black gospel style handclapping". The Project adds that "the song has also been credited with being the most successful record to that point to use the word 'rock' not as a euphemism for sex, but as a descriptive for the musical style.[15]
In 1950, Harris released the double-sided hit "Sittin' on It All the Time" backed with "Baby, Shame on You" (King 4330), and in 1951, he recorded a cover version of Hank Penny's "Bloodshot Eyes" (King 4461).[16][17] His risqué approach to material at times made his tracks "Keep On Churnin'" (1952) and "Wasn't That Good" (1953) jukebox favorites in the early 1950s.[18] Other lascivious songs he recorded include the earlier tracks "I Want My Fanny Brown" and "Lollipop Mama".[19]
Harris definitely achieved a great deal of success, with "16 Top 10 R&B hits between 1945 and 1952, including the definitive version of Roy Brown's "Good Rockin' Tonight," a disc that spent 25 weeks on Billboard's chart in 1948".[20]
Later career
Harris transitioned between several recording contracts between 1954 and 1964. In 1960 he cut six sides for Roulette Records, including a remake of his hit "Bloodshot Eyes" and "Sweet Lucy Brown", "Spread the News", "Saturday Night", "Josephine" and "Did You Get the Message".[21] He also became more indebted and was forced to live in less glamorous surroundings.[9]
In 1964 Harris resettled for the last time in Los Angeles. His final recordings were three sides for Chess Records in 1964: "The Comeback", "Buzzard Luck" and "Conjured".[22] His final large-scale performance was at the Apollo in November 1967, where he performed with Big Joe Turner, Big Mama Thornton, Jimmy Witherspoon and T-Bone Walker.
Harris died of esophageal cancer on June 14, 1969, aged 53, at the USC Medical Center Hospital in Los Angeles.[9]
Legacy
He was the subject of a 1994 biography by Tony Collins.[23]
Since the end of the twentieth century, there has been a resurgence of interest in his music. Some of his recordings are being reissued, and he has been honored posthumously.
- 1994: Inducted into the W. C. Handy Blues Hall of Fame by the Blues Foundation in Memphis, Tennessee
- 1998: Inducted into the Nebraska Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Lincoln
- 2000: Inducted into the High School Hall of Fame at Central High School in Omaha, Nebraska
- 2005: Inducted into the Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame[24]
In 2011, Harris's song "Quiet Whiskey" was number 9 the list of Top 10 Drinking Songs published by
In 2014, Harris's song "Grandma Plays the Numbers" was featured in the video game Fallout 4.
The Blues Hall of Fame provides these comments: "Harris recorded sporadically afterwards [after 1952] but never again enjoyed the glory or success he'd known as one of the kings of jump blues. Today he is most acknowledged for laying the groundwork for rock 'n' roll".[26]
Influence on Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley may well have seen Harris perform in Memphis in the early 1950s, although this is not documented.[27][28] According to Henry Glover, Harris's record producer, Elvis "copied many of the vocal gymnastics of Wynonie as well as the physical gyrations. When you saw Elvis, you were seeing a mild version of Wynonie".[28] Harris remarked in a 1956 interview that Elvis's hip movements were stirring controversy in a way his own never did: "Many people have been giving him trouble for swinging his hips. I swing mine and have no trouble. He's got publicity I could not buy".[29]
In the television miniseries of 2005,
Discography
Charting singles
Release date |
Title | Chart positions | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|
US R&B/Race charts | US pop chart | |||
1944 | "Hurry Hurry!" | 24 | With Lucky Millinder and His Orchestra | |
1945 | "Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well" | 1 | 7 | With Lucky Millinder and His Orchestra |
1946 | "Wynonie's Blues" | 3 | With Illinois Jacquet and His All-Stars | |
"Playful Baby" | 2 | With Johnnie Alston and His All-Stars | ||
1948 | "Good Rocking Tonight" | 1 | Written by Roy Brown, covered by Elvis Presley in 1954 | |
"Lollipop Mama" | 8 | |||
1949 | "Grandma Plays the Numbers" | 7 | ||
"I Feel That Old Age Coming On" | 10 | |||
"Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee" | 4 | |||
"All She Wants to Do Is Rock" | 1 | |||
"I Want My Fanny Brown" | 10 | |||
1950 | "Sittin' on It All the Time" | 3 | ||
"I Like My Baby's Pudding" | 5 | |||
"Good Morning Judge" | 6 | |||
"Oh Babe!" | 7 | With Lucky Millinder and His Orchestra | ||
1951 | "Bloodshot Eyes" | 6 | ||
1952 | "Lovin' Machine" | 5 | With Todd Rhodes and His Orchestra |
References
- ISBN 9780879308254.
- ^ "The W Harris Profile" quotes his birth date as August 24, 1913. The profile goes on to say that, on account of his "indifference to learning", "he abandoned school permanently" in 1931; it is more likely he would have left school at age 16 than at age 18, so the 1915 birthdate seems more likely. The later date is supported by all other sources cited.
- ^ Demain, Bill (March 23, 2012). "5 Candidates for the First Rock 'n' Roll Song". Mentalfloss.com.
- ISBN 0-634-09926-4.
- ^ "When was rock'n'roll really born?". The Guardian. April 16, 2004. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
- ISBN 9781134762880. Retrieved May 7, 2016.
- ^ a b "10 Often-Censored Songs from the Early '50s". Rebeatmag.com. September 4, 2014. Retrieved May 7, 2016.
- ^ a b "Risque Rhythm (1950s)". Horntip.com. April 16, 2014. Retrieved May 7, 2016.
- ^ ISBN 1-85868-255-X.
- ^ "Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well" also reached number 7 on the U.S. pop chart
- ^ Harris re-recorded Brown's hit in 1948, after Brown wrote and recorded it in 1947. It was later rerecorded by Elvis Presley in 1954, with later versions by Jerry Lee Lewis, Ricky Nelson, Buddy Holly, Pat Boone and Paul McCartney
- ^ "5 Candidates for the First Rock 'n' Roll Song". Mentalfloss.com. March 23, 2012. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
- ^ "The first rock'n'roll record is released". The Guardian. June 12, 2011. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
the first rock record. In fact, that title is hotly disputed, with contenders including Sister Rosetta Tharpe's Strange Things Happening Every Day (1944) and
- ^ "1st RECORDING OF: Good Rockin' Tonight - Roy Brown (1947)". Youtube. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021.
- ^ "Good Rockin' Tonight (song)". The-paulmccartney-project.com. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
- ISBN 1-55652-614-8.
- ^ "Bloodshot Eyes, Wynonie Harris". Rockabilly.nl. Retrieved May 21, 2014.
- ^ "Risque Rhythm (1950s)". Horntip.com. April 16, 2014. Retrieved June 16, 2016.
- ^ Dahl, Bill. "Wynonie Harris, Good Rocking Tonight: Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved June 16, 2016.
- ^ "1940s musicians laid the cornerstone for rock 'n' roll". Goldminemag.com. September 29, 2011. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
- ^ Various artists, Roulette Rock & Roll, Vol. 2: Everybody's Gonna (1994), Castle/Sequel.
- ^ Various artists, Shoutin', Swingin' & Makin' Love (1991), MCA.
- ISBN 0-936433-19-1.
- ^ Harris was one of the 40 inaugural inductees to the Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame in 2005
- ^ "AskMen's Top 10 List of Drinking Songs". Askmen.com. Retrieved August 6, 2014.
- ^ "Wynonie Harris". Blues.org. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
- ISBN 978-0-316-33220-0.
- ^ ISBN 0-936433-19-1.
- ISBN 0-306-80891-9.
- ^ "Elvis". IMDb. TV miniseries. Retrieved June 17, 2016.
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: CS1 maint: others (link) - ISBN 0-89820-083-0.
- ISBN 0-8230-8283-0.