Wynonie Harris was a raucous, shouting vocalist with a rasping voice who released a string of R&B hits between 1946 and 1952.
Harris was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1915. He formed a dance team in the 1930s, and later started singing in clubs in Kansas City. In 1940 Wynonie Harris moved to Los Angeles, and quickly gained popularity as a Blues singer. His first hit, released in 1945, was "Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well", recorded with Lucky Millinder's orchestra in Harlem. The next year, recording for Apollo records, he released two jump blues hits: "Wynonie's Blues" and "Playful Baby".
In 1948, Harris reached the top of the R&B charts with "Good Rockin' Tonight", a cover version of composer Roy Brown's original, and a precursor of Rock & Roll. Following that, he made a series on increasingly raunchy hits including "All She Wants to Do is Rock", "Sittin On It All the Time" and "I Like My Baby's Pudding". But in 1952, the public taste changed and Harris fell off the charts for good.
Harris continued to record and perform live into the 1960's, but with little success. He died in 1969, aged fifty-four.
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