Flamboyant and bawdy — with a slew of songs about whiskey, women and good times — Wynonie Harris ruled the rhythm and blues charts from the late 1940s to the mid-50s. His energetic brand of jump blues profoundly influenced rock ’n’ roll music.
  Biographer Tony Collins points out the singer’s “disarmingly cheerful vulgarity” as a major reason for his success. On titles such as “Good Rockin’ Tonight,” “All She Wants to Do is Rock” and “the self-composed “Shake That Thing,” he is both lewd and fun-loving. Harris and the various combos he fronted sound like they’re having a raucous time, and his live performances were equally wild. Usually clad in a tuxedo, the handsome Harris also owed his popularity to his appeal to women.
  Born in Omaha in 1913, Harris attended both Technical and Central high schools before abandoning his studies for a try at show business. He got his first chance at stardom in 1935 at Jim Bell’s Harlem, a lavish club near 24^th and Lake streets in Omaha. Here he danced, played drums and got his first shot at singing the blues. During the next five years, he became the top singer in Omaha.
  He moved to Los Angeles in 1940 and made a name for himself there, earning the nickname “Mr. Blues.” Harris joined one of the top touring bands, the Lucky Millinder Orchestra, which featured fellow Omahan Preston Love on alto sax. One of the first numbers Harris recorded with the band, the spirited “Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well,” became a hit with both black and white audiences. Crossover hits eluded Harris most of the rest of his career, even though he scored three Number One hits and 16 Top Ten hits on the R&B or “race” charts.
  Though he remains largely unknown in his native city, Harris has received some recognition for his trailblazing musical efforts. In the 1990s Harris was inducted into the Nebraska Rock ’N’ Roll Hall of Fame and the W.C. Handy Blues Hall of Fame. His recording of “Good Rockin’ Tonight” is included in the Cleveland-based Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of “500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.”
                                                                                  — Gary Rosenberg
                                                                                             DCHS Staff

                                                Sources:
Vertical Files, Douglas County Historical Society Library Archives Center
Collins, Tony  Rock Mr. Blues: The Life & Music of Wynonie Harris. Milford, NH: Big Nickel Publications, 1995.