Wilbert Harrison (January 5, 1929 – October 26, 1994) was an American singe… Read Full Bio ↴Wilbert Harrison (January 5, 1929 – October 26, 1994) was an American singer, pianist, guitarist, and harmonica player. Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, the soul and rnb artist influenced numerous musicians during his mutli-decade career and also played a role in the evolution of rock n roll music. Harrison's best known for having a Billboard #1 record in 1959 with the song "Kansas City", the track still picking up widespread airplay for years and years.
The song was was one of the first credited collaborations by the acclaimed musical team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, the men writing it back in 1952. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc. Harrison sang "Kansas City" for the Harlem based entrepreneur Bobby Robinson, and he recorded additional singles for the Fire and Fury record labels, which were owned and operated by Robinson.
After this spike of widespread success, Harrison continued to perform and record, exciting his many fans. However, it would be another ten years before he again cracked the Billboard Top 40 when he released "Let's Work Together (Part 1)", a track that went to #32 in early 1970 on the Billboard Hot 100. The 1970 hit version was distributed as a single through Sue Records (Sue 11) and was backed with "Let's Work Together (Part 2)". The full version of the tune, a five minute and ninteen second song that was included on the Sue Records album SSLP-8801, was simply called "Let's Work Together". An earlier version of the full song by Harrison came out in 1962 as "Let's Stick Together" (on Fury 1059 and Fury 1063).
A sign of Harrison's strong influence on soul music, cover versions of his song would be later be hits for both the American rock band Canned Heat and the British singer-songwriter Bryan Ferry. It was also recorded by country rock group The Kentucky Headhunters for the soundtrack to the Mickey Rourke film 'Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man'. Harrison had some additional success with "My Heart Is Yours", and his non-charting singles continued to be beloved among many American rnb fans. He toured for many years with a band known as 'Wilbert Harrison and The Roamers', as well as a solo act.
Harrison died of a stroke in 1994, in a Spencer, North Carolina nursing home at the age of 65. In 2001, his recording of "Kansas City" was given a Grammy Hall of Fame Award, and has also been named as one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. Harrison was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009.
The song was was one of the first credited collaborations by the acclaimed musical team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, the men writing it back in 1952. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc. Harrison sang "Kansas City" for the Harlem based entrepreneur Bobby Robinson, and he recorded additional singles for the Fire and Fury record labels, which were owned and operated by Robinson.
After this spike of widespread success, Harrison continued to perform and record, exciting his many fans. However, it would be another ten years before he again cracked the Billboard Top 40 when he released "Let's Work Together (Part 1)", a track that went to #32 in early 1970 on the Billboard Hot 100. The 1970 hit version was distributed as a single through Sue Records (Sue 11) and was backed with "Let's Work Together (Part 2)". The full version of the tune, a five minute and ninteen second song that was included on the Sue Records album SSLP-8801, was simply called "Let's Work Together". An earlier version of the full song by Harrison came out in 1962 as "Let's Stick Together" (on Fury 1059 and Fury 1063).
A sign of Harrison's strong influence on soul music, cover versions of his song would be later be hits for both the American rock band Canned Heat and the British singer-songwriter Bryan Ferry. It was also recorded by country rock group The Kentucky Headhunters for the soundtrack to the Mickey Rourke film 'Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man'. Harrison had some additional success with "My Heart Is Yours", and his non-charting singles continued to be beloved among many American rnb fans. He toured for many years with a band known as 'Wilbert Harrison and The Roamers', as well as a solo act.
Harrison died of a stroke in 1994, in a Spencer, North Carolina nursing home at the age of 65. In 2001, his recording of "Kansas City" was given a Grammy Hall of Fame Award, and has also been named as one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. Harrison was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009.
It Took a Long Time
Wilbert Harrison Lyrics
We have lyrics for 'It Took a Long Time' by these artists:
8.04 Koko Taylor It's been a long time It's been a long time It's been…
GOBLIN MOLD Celebrating nothing every night is not good for your body An…
Labelle It took long time to find this place It took long…
We have lyrics for these tracks by Wilbert Harrison:
1960 Far between sundown′s finish and midnight's broken toll We d…
Blue Monday Blue Monday, how I hate blue Monday Got me workin'…
Goodbye Kansas City I'm going to Kansas City, Kansas City here I come I'm…
Kansas City I'm going to Kansas City, Kansas City here I come I'm…
Let%E2%80%99s Work Together Together we will stand Divided we'll fall Come on now people…
Let's Stick Together Together we will stand Divided we'll fall Come on now people…
Let's Stick Together Let's Work Together Together we will stand Divided we'll fall Come on now people…
Let's Work Together Together we will stand Divided we'll fall Come on now people…
Let's Work Together Parts 1 & 2 Together we'll stand Divided we'll fall Come on now people…
Lets Stick Together And now, the marriage vow is very sacred The man put…
Lets Work Together Together we will stand Divided we'll fall Come on now people…
Let’s Stick Together Together we'll stand Divided we'll fall Come on now people…
Let’s Work Together Together we will stand Divided we'll fall Come on now people…
Louie Louie Louie Louie, oh no Me gotta go Aye-yi-yi-yi, I said Louie Lo…
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
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Captain Quirk
One can see that this was the early days of rock & roll, and the
producers were still feeling their way and trying to figure out how to do it.
I was never a fan of lip-syncing, but if you're going to do it, you have to:
[1] at least make a small effort to make it look like it's a live performance,
[2] give the singer a microphone so he has something to do with his hands
besides snapping his fingers awkwardly for three minutes, and
[3] have a backing band onstage so the singer doesn't have to awkwardly
carry the entire performance single-handedly for the duration of the song.
This is especially crucial if you're going to have a guitar solo. I mean come
on, guys. The camera had to focus on stone-faced members of the audience during the guitar solo because, of course, there was no guitar onstage! I know this was 1959, but still.....
Tejas C 1/9
I'm a trucker and am in Kansas City dropping a load of train wheels. Everytime I come to Kansas City, this song comes to mind. I'm 58 years old, and love all kinds of music from the 50's to today.
dave1135
I bet the wheels were for Griffin wheel?
berzerker1100
Did you Drive your Big Rig to 12th street & vine ?🚛🍺
Lonnie Christopher
I think this song is highly UNDER-RATED.....it's blues, Country and Rock combined...fabulous dance song....and this guy nails it.......
Gordon Franklin Terry, Sr. M.Ed.
❤ YOU KNOW IT.
it ALWAYS comes up on my Pandora app.
Michael Crockette
only the kids in the audience have less energy than Wilbert.
Sco Bos
The Beatles covered this quite well. McCartney can ROCK.
Connie Limon
@Lonnie Christopher first time I heard him sing this I fell in love with this version. I have heard it many times sung by others, but this version surely is my favorite out of all others.
Yuvonne Banks
Could he have had less energy, no showman ship.
Joseph Kane
Just One of The Very Best hit singles of 1959 as it sounds so fantastic even nowadays