Biography
Emerging from Philadelphia, where he was born and raised, blue-eyed soul shouter Billy Harner earned the nickname "The Human Percolator" among Northern soul enthusiasts. His initial recording appeared in 1964 on Lawn, pairing him with the Expressions for the track "Anymore," though the group soon disbanded; consequently, the succeeding single "Coney Island Wild Child" listed only Harner as artist. By 1965 he had joined Cameo/Parkway, issuing "All Through the Night," and the 1966 release "Let's Get in Line" led him onward to Kama Sutra. There he cut several enduring singles that later attained cult status, among them "Homicide Dresser," "What About the Music," and the Northern soul favorite "Sally's Sayin' Somethin'," which registered as a minor hit across Philadelphia, New York, and Los Angeles during the summer of 1967 yet never achieved broader national traction. Late in 1968 he aligned with the independent Philadelphia label Open/OR; its first offering, the luminous ballad "A Message to My Baby," subsequently received wider release through Atlantic. Another Northern favorite followed in the form of the scorching Gamble-Huff composition "I Struck It Rich," which preceded his only album, She's Almost You, in 1969. Like its predecessors, the LP failed to connect commercially, and after a final single for the obscure 66 + 6 imprint—a cover of Chris Kenner's "Something You Got"—Harner abandoned performing to establish a barbershop in Camden, NJ. He reappeared on the East Coast oldies circuit during the 1990s.
Albums
