Monday, 24 August 2020

Wynonie Harris born 24 August 1915


Wynonie Harris (August 24, 1915 – June 14, 1969) was an American blues shouter and rhythm-and-blues singer of upbeat songs, featuring humorous, often ribald lyrics. He had fifteen Top 10 hits between 1946 and 1952. Harris is attributed by many music scholars to be one of the founding fathers of rock and roll.

Harris's mother, Mallie Hood Anderson, was fifteen and unmarried at the time of his birth in Nebraska. 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 North Omaha. The following year, his first child, a daughter, Micky, was born to Naomi Henderson. Ten months later, his son Wesley was born to Laura Devereaux. Both children were raised by their mothers. Wesley became a singer in the Five Echoes and in the Sultans and later was a singer and guitarist in Preston Love's band.

Harris formed a dance team with Velda Shannon in the early 1930s. They performed in North Omaha's flourishing entertainment community, and by 1934, they were a regular attraction at the Ritz Theatre. In 1935, Harris, having became a celebrity in Omaha, was able to earn a living as an entertainer, in the depths of the Great Depression.

In 1935 Harris, age 20, started dating 16-year-old Ollie Goodlow, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, who came to neighbouring Omaha to watch him perform. On May 20, 1936, Ollie gave birth to a daughter, Adrianne Patricia (Pattie). Harris and Ollie were married on December 11, 1936. Later they lived in the Logan Fontenelle projects in North Omaha. Ollie worked as a barmaid and nurse; Harris sang in clubs and took odd jobs.

While performing at Jim Bell's Club Harlem nightclub with Shannon, he began to sing the blues. He began travelling frequently to Kansas City, where he paid close attention to blues shouters. Harris was already a seasoned dancer, drummer, and singer when he left Omaha for L.A. in 1940. He found plenty of work singing and appearing as an emcee on Central Avenue, where his reputation was spreading fast.

He was appearing in Chicago at the Rhumboogie Club in 1944 when bandleader Lucky Millinder hired him as his band's new singer. With Millinder's orchestra in brassy support, Harris made his debut on shellac by boisterously delivering "Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well" that same year for Decca. By the time it hit in mid-1945, Harris was long gone from Millinder's organization and back in L.A.


                               

The shouter debuted on wax 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" (with saxist Illinois Jacquet's combo) and "Playful 
Baby." Harris's own waxings were squarely in the emerging jump blues style then sweeping the West Coast. After scattered dates for Hamp-Tone, Bullet, and Aladdin, Harris joined the star-studded roster of Cincinnati's King Records in 1947. There his sales really soared.

Few records made a stronger seismic impact than Harris' 1948 chart-topper "Good Rockin' Tonight." Ironically, Harris shooed away its composer, Roy Brown, when he first tried to hand it to the singer; only when Brown's original version took off did Wynonie cover the romping number. With Hal "Cornbread" Singer on wailing tenor sax and a rocking, socking backbeat, 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).

After that, Harris was rarely absent from the R&B charts for the next four years, he scored into 1952 (13 in all) — and then his personal hit parade stopped dead. It certainly wasn't Harris' fault — his King output rocked as hard as ever under Henry Glover's supervision — but changing tastes among fickle consumers that accelerated Wynonie Harris's sobering fall from favour.

Sides for Atco in 1956, King in 1957, and Roulette in 1960 only hinted at the raunchy glory of a short few years earlier. The touring slowed accordingly. In 1963, his chaffeur-driven Cadillacs and lavish New York home a distant memory, Harris moved back to L.A., scraping up low-paying local gigs whenever he could. Chess gave him a three-song session in 1964, but sat on the promising results.

On June 14, 1969, aged 53, Harris died of esophageal cancer at the USC Medical Center Hospital in Los Angeles. A sad ending for the bigger-than-life R&B pioneer whose ego matched his tremendous talent. (Compiled and edited from Wikipedia & All Music)

3 comments:

boppinbob said...

For “Wynonie Harris - Don't You Want To Rock (2015) [2CD]” go here:

https://1fichier.com/?9sgjda15pt

CD 1:
01. Love Is Like Rain
02. Rose Get Your Clothes
03. Wynonie's Boogie
04. Your Money Don't Mean A Thing
05. Good Morning Mr Blues
06. Blow Your Brains Out
07. Blowin' To California
08. Crazy Love (Comes Love)
09. Bite Again, Bite Again
10. Lollipop Mama
11. I Believe I'll Fall In Love
12. Grandma Plays The Numbers
13. She Just Won't Sell No More
14. I Want My Fanny Brown
15. I Feel That Old Age Coming On
16. Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee
17. All She Wants To Do Is Rock
18. I Can't Take It No More
19. Sittin' On It All The Time
20. I Like My Baby's Pudding
21. Baby, Shame On You
22. Oh Babe!
23. Teardrops From My Eyes

CD 2:
01. Good Rockin' Tonight (Tk1)
02. Good Rockin' Tonight (Tk2)
03. Love Is Like Rain (Tk3)
04. Wynonie's Unissued Blues (Tk2)
05. Baby Shame On You (Tk1)
06. I Believe I'll Fall In Love (Tk1)
07. Don't You Want To Rock (Tk1)
08. Love Is Crazy (Crazy Love) (Tk2)
09. Good Morning Mr Blues (Tk1)
10. From Good To Bad Blues (Tk1)
11. Grandma Plays The Numbers (Alt)
12. She Just Won't Sell No More (Tk2)
13. Love Is Crazy (Crazy Love) (Tk1)
14. I Want My Fanny Brown (Alt)
15. I Feel That Old Age Coming On (Tk1)
16. Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee (Tk3)
17. All She Wants To Do Is Rock (Tk3)
18. Sittin' On It All The Time (Tk3)
19. I Like My Baby's Pudding (Tk2)
20. Triflin' Woman (Tk1)
21. Oh Babe! (Tk1)
22. Teardrops From My Eyes (Tk1)
23. Don't You Want To Rock (Tk2)
24. Love Is Crazy (Crazy Love) (Tk3)
25. Good Rockin' Tonight (Unedited)

Don't You Want To Rock is a double CD set that presents Wynonie Harris as no collector has ever heard him before. It was scheduled as a single CD some years back, but further research into the acetates has enabled expansion into an unbeatable 2CD set. The first disc contains the master takes of every surviving previously issued acetate master of Wynonie’s. The second features two dozen alternate takes of his earliest King successes, every single one is previously unissued. CD2 also includes several previously unreleased songs from Harris - the King of Blues Shouters. Although he has been extensively anthologised on CD in the past, this a Wynonie-fest is guaranteed to satisfy even the most ardent collector with a sound quality that no previously released anthology of these recordings could hope to match. (A big thank you to c@tbyte for active link.)

boppinbob said...

For “Wynonie Harris - Jump Mr Blues ~ The Definitive Collection” go here:

https://mega.nz/file/lq5FTRKS#XfGeWgDEIqQ6t0gqImcjzB9BX0kASZ0fpvTcQJ3f3eA

CD 1
1. Who Threw The Whiskey In The Well (3:03)
2. Around The Clock (part1) (2:55)
3. Wynonie's Blues (2:50)
4. Young Man's Blues (2:53)
5. That's The Stuff You Gotta Watch (2:42)
6. Playful Baby (2:42)
7. Hey, Bab-Ba-Re-Bop (part1) (2:34)
8. In The Evenin' Blues (2:51)
9. My Baby's Barrel House (2:52)
10. Mr Blues Jumped The Rabbit (2:53)
11. You Got To Get Yourself A Job, Girl (2:50)
12. Big City Blues (2:33)
13. Battle Of The Blues (part1) (with Joe Turner) (2:55)
14. Good Morning Mr Blues (2:51)
15. From Bad To Good Blues (2:44)
16. Good Rockin' Tonight (2:49)
17. Lollipop Mama (2:51)
18. Grandma Plays The Numbers (2:42)
19. She Just Won't Sell No More (2:36)
20. I Want My Fanny Brown (3:09)
21. I Feel That Old Age Comin' On (2:50)
22. Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee (2:32)
23. All She Wants To Do Is Rock (2:36)
24. Sittin' On It All The Time (2:41)
25. I Like My Baby's Pudding (2:43)

CD 2
1. Triflin' Woman (2:41)
2. Rock Mr Blues (2:42)
3. Good Morning Judge (2:44)
4. Mr Blues Is Coming To Town (3:02)
5. Oh! Babe (3:00)
6. Confessin' The Blues (2:51)
7. Bloodshot Eyes (1951) (2:45)
8. Here Comes The Night (2:37)
9. Lovin' Machine (2:29)
10. My Playful Baby's Gone (2:32)
11. Keep On Churnin' (Till The Butter Comes) (2:57)
12. Drinking Blues (2:46)
13. Adam Come And Get Your Rib (2:24)
14. Bring It Back (2:19)
15. Bad News Baby (There'll Be No Rockin' Tonite) (3:02)
16. Mama Your Daughter Done Lied To Me (2:21)
17. Christina (2:46)
18. Drinkin' Sherry Wine (2:35)
19. Fishtail Blues (2:38)
20. Good Mambo Tonight (2:31)
21. Wine Wine Sweet Wine (2:05)
22. That's Me Right Now (2:05)
23. A Tale Of Woe (2:51)
24. Sweet Lucy Brown (2:32)
25. Bloodshot Eyes (1960) (2:49)

A big thank you to polar bear @ https://forwardwiththesong.blog for original post.

Zesty said...

A couple of other downloads:

Oh Babe!
https://mega.nz/file/IENkiYqR#JqtsHYbQNCVKyhbfXLHR8XERXJuADvonoL0PxHExKWo

Playful Baby
https://mega.nz/file/pQFAxCDY#gGgFRuyqw0xdpfqBYMRo9IulkEiiEW2ihcyGhXAz4Og

and others, from
https://bebopwinorip.blogspot.com/search?q=wynonie+harris