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.
Off To School Again
Wilbert Harrison Lyrics
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…
Kansas City Twist 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 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 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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MrMartininuk
Wilbert was great .He played piano ,guitar , drums and harmonica - sometimes several at once........as at his Albert Hall UK gig in support of Canned Heat . The absurd members of UK group "The Gun" (Adrian ,etc)had been scheduled to back him, but after making sure they still got paid ,unprofessionally decided in rehearsal that it was beneath them ,leaving him to do the evening`s show on his own and to be billed as Wilbert Harrison the one-man-band .
In fact, Mr Harrison was at home with musicians of a far greater calibre. Kansas City and most other Fire-Fury 45s had Wild Jimmy Spruill`s guitar-work.
The track here should be heard alongside his "Off to work again",a very similar tune which benefits from the sax of King Curtis.
By the way, Leiber and Stoller,progressively litigious and not always so original themselves - see the story of Spanish Harlem -, had grabbed all the song-writing royalties from Wilbert`s million-seller as a result of their production of Little Willie Littlefield`s earlier version leaving Wilbert`s novel arrangement unrewarded and uncredited.
This was no doubt the reason for the other side of this 45 - Wilbert singing "Broke" to the tune of Kansas City !