Wynonie Harris

Among blues shouters, none captured the exuberant celebrations he celebrated in song as vividly as the boisterous Wynonie Harris. Self-styled "Mr. Blues," he delivered bawdy accounts of intimacy, liquor, and nonstop revelry through his signature hoarse timbre, supported by the most propulsive brass-driven groups of the postwar years. Those unrestrained habits eventually exacted their toll, yet not before he amassed numerous R&B hits between 1946 and 1952. Already experienced as a dancer, drummer, and vocalist, Harris departed Omaha for Los Angeles in 1940, drawing primary inspiration from Big Joe Turner and Jimmy Rushing. He secured steady employment performing and serving as emcee along Central Avenue, the vibrant Black entertainment corridor, and his profile rose rapidly. While performing at Chicago's Rhumboogie Club in 1944, bandleader Lucky Millinder recruited him as the group's new vocalist. Backed by Millinder's orchestra, Harris cut his first shellac recording that year for Decca, delivering a spirited rendition of "Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well." By the time the track succeeded in mid-1945, Harris had already left Millinder and returned to Los Angeles.

Harris made his first solo recordings in July 1945 during a Los Angeles session for Philo, accompanied by drummer Johnny Otis, saxophonist Teddy Edwards, and trumpeter Howard McGhee. One month later he signed with Apollo Records, an affiliation that yielded two major successes in 1946: "Wynonie's Blues," featuring Illinois Jacquet's ensemble, and "Playful Baby." His early sides adhered closely to the emerging jump blues idiom then dominating the West Coast. Following occasional sessions for Hamp-Tone, Bullet, and Aladdin—where he engaged in a two-sided "Battle of the Blues" against his idol Big Joe—Harris joined the prestigious roster of Cincinnati's King Records in 1947, where his commercial fortunes climbed sharply.

Few releases generated comparable reverberations across the era than Harris's 1948 chart-topping "Good Rockin' Tonight." Composer Roy Brown had initially offered the number directly to Harris, who declined it; only after Brown's own version gained traction did Wynonie record his version. With Hal "Cornbread" Singer contributing wailing tenor saxophone and a driving, emphatic backbeat, the track supplied a clear template for the coming ascent of rock & roll and supplied Elvis Presley with material for the A-side of his second Sun single. Thereafter Harris remained a consistent presence on the R&B charts for four years, his material growing increasingly suggestive. "Grandma Plays the Numbers," "All She Wants to Do Is Rock," "I Want My Fanny Brown," "Sittin' on It All the Time," "I Like My Baby's Pudding," "Good Morning Judge," "Bloodshot Eyes"—originally issued on King by Hank Penny—and "Lovin' Machine" formed only part of the thirteen ribald successes he tallied through 1952, after which his personal hit streak ceased abruptly. The decline owed nothing to diminished quality in his King output, which continued to rock vigorously under Henry Glover's direction, yet shifting public preferences hastened Wynonie Harris's decline from prominence.

Later recordings for Atco in 1956, King in 1957, and Roulette in 1960 merely evoked the earlier raunchy peak. Live work diminished accordingly. By 1963, with his chauffeur-driven Cadillacs and expansive New York residence now distant memories, Harris relocated to Los Angeles and took whatever modest local engagements became available. Chess granted him a three-song session in 1964, though the label withheld the promising results. Throat cancer claimed him in 1969, closing the career of an outsized R&B trailblazer whose self-regard equaled his prodigious gifts.