R&B singer Wilbert Harrison was born in 1929 in Charlotte, NC. He had
been making records for a variety of small labels since the early
1950s, but never had a hit. That changed in 1959, when he recorded
"Kansas City"--written by legendary songwriting team
Jerry Leiber and
Mike Stoller--and it reached #1 on the R&B
charts. Harrison toured in various R&B and rock shows and continued to
record. In 1969 he had a comeback of sorts when he recorded "Let's Work
Together", which he also wrote, and it went to #32 on the pop charts.
He kept recording and touring into the 1980s, but didn't meet with much
success. He eventually left the music business.