Wynonie Harris

Wynonie Harris – Broadcast Jan 2008

No blues shouter embodied the post war good times that he sang of quite like raucous shouter Wynonie Harris. "Mr. Blues," as he was not-so-humbly known, joyously related tales of sex, booze, and endless parties in his trademark raspy voice over some of the jumpingest horn-powered combos of the period.

Those high livin’ ways brought on an early death at age 54, but not before he scored a string of hits from 1946 to 1952.

Hank Penny number, from 1951, at the height of his career

1. Bloodshot Eyes – Feb 1951 – Good Rockin Tonight – Tk 13 – 2.40

Harris' mother, was fifteen at the time of his birth in 1913 and unmarried. Harris' father's identity is uncertain, although was probably a Native American. There was no father figure in the house until his mother married a Luther Harris, fifteen years her senior, in 1920.

He grew up in a middle class environment in Omaha, Nebraska, and in 1931, Harris dropped out of school. In the following two years he fathered two children to two different girls. Both children were raised by their mothers.

Harris formed a dance team in the early 1930s which performed around North Omaha's flourishing entertainment community. It wasn't until 1935, however, that Harris was able to earn his living as an entertainer.

In 1940, Wynonie and his then wife Ollie moved to Los Angeles. His big break in Los Angeles was at a nightclub called the Club Alabam.

Performing almost continuously as a dancer, drummer, and singer, he was in Chicago in late 1943 and was spotted by band leader Lucky Millinder who asked him to join his band's tour.

On May 26, 1944, Harris made his recording debut with "Lucky Millinder and His Orchestra" and in April 1945, a year after it was recorded, Decca released "Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well". This song went to number one on the R&B charts on July 14 and stayed there for eight weeks.

2. Who Threw The Whiskey in the Well – May 1944 – Blues Collection – Tk 1 – 2.56

Harris' success and popularity grew as Millinder's band toured the country, but he and Millinder soon had a falling out over money.

Harris eventually returned to Los Angeles. Now back in California, the success of "Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well" opened many doors.

He made his first recording under his own name in July of 1945 at an L.A. date for Philo. A month later, he signed on with Apollo Records, an association that provided him with two huge hits in 1946: "Wynonie's Blues" and "Playful Baby." These were squarely in the emerging jump blues style then sweeping the West Coast.

3. Wynonie’s Blues – Aug 1945 – Blues Collection – Tk 5 – 2.51

After scattered dates for Hamp-Tone, Bullet, and Aladdin Harris joined Syd Nathan’s King Records in Cincinnati in 1947. There his sales really soared.

Nathan was a tough Jewish businessman who was looking to expand his label into race or R&B music, and he figured Harris, already an established artist, would fit the bill

Harris’ biographer Tony Collins writes of Syd Nathan’s first meeting with Harris ….:

His biggest King hit was the 1948 chart-topper "Good Rockin' Tonight." Ironically, Harris rejected it when composer Roy Brown first offered it to him, and only when Brown’s original version took off did Wynonie cover the track, The record provided an easily followed blueprint for the imminent rise of rock & roll a few years later (and gave Elvis Presley something to place on the A side of his second Sun single).

4. Good Rockin Tonight – 1948 – Good Rockin Tonight – Tk 1 – 2.42

The relationship with King records was mutually beneficial. King supplied Harris with good material, good production and backing musicians, and Harris repaid this with thirteen Top 10 chart entries over the next four years, four in 1949 alone.

Through to 1952, his offerings grew more boldly suggestive. Here is a selection of tracks from this period, the first two from 1949

5. Grandma Plays The Numbers – 1949 – Good Rockin Tonight – Tk 3 – 2.37

6. I Want My Fanny Brown,- 1949 - Good Rockin Tonight – Tk 4 – 3.05

Three more from 1950

7. "Sittin' on It All the Time – 1950 - Good Rockin Tonight – Tk 8 – 2.37

8. "I Like My Baby's Pudding – 1950 - Good Rockin Tonight – Tk 9 – 2.41

9. "Good Morning Judge – 1950 - Good Rockin Tonight – Tk 11 – 2.39

The track with the most risqué title and lyrics was this one from 1952:

10. Keep On Churning Till The Butter Comes – early 1952 – Lovin’ Machine – Tk 8 – 2.52

Tracks like this were fine in the 40s when they were played on ghetto jukeboxes, but by the mid 50s the number of radio programs being beamed to black, and later white audiences, meant that DJs became reluctant to play such records

By 1952 though, his hits stopped coming. It certainly wasn't Harris' fault — his King output rocked as hard as ever but changing tastes among fickle consumers that accelerated Wynonie Harris's sobering fall from favor.

11. Wasn’t That Good – March 1953 – Lovin’ machine – Tk 16 – 2.60

Another rocking drinking song..

12. Quiet Whiskey – Sept 1954 – Lovin’ Machine – Tk 18 – 2.26

By the end of 1954 his career was fading fast. He had not had a hit for over 2 years, and he was regularly antagonizing promoters and audiences with his profane language and bad behaviour. King decided not to renew his contract. From his last King session:

13. Fishtail Blues – Nov 1954 – Women, Whiskey – Tk 7 – 2.38

Sides for Atco in 1956, a couple more for King in 1957, and Roulette in 1960 only hinted at the raunchy glory of a short few years earlier. The touring slowed accordingly. Harris moved back to L.A., scraping up low-paying local gigs whenever he could..

King track from 1957...

14. There is No Substitute For Love – July 1957 – Women, Whiskey – Tk 20 – 3.05

In 1964 he resettled for the last time in Los Angeles

Harris spent the sixties running taverns in the New York area, and then, becoming more indebted, was forced to live in less glamorous surroundings. He moved out to the West Coast and did the same in Los Angeles, and then in Oakland, California.

He had one last three song recording session for Chess Records in Chicago in 1964, but nothing was released from that date.

His final large-scale performance was at the Apollo (in New York) in November 1967, where he performed with Big Joe Turner, Big Mama Thornton, Jimmy Witherspoon and T-Bone Walker.

On June 14, 1969, aged fifty-four, Harris died of throat cancer in Los Angeles. a bigger-than-life R&B pioneer whose ego matched his tremendous talent

Wynonie Harris with a penchant for hard partying and high times, lived the life he wanted despite its toll on his health. He is a true American original and is deserving just as much as anyone else you can name, as the "inventor" of rock 'n roll - the music that changed everything. "

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