This Week In Texas Music History: Peppermint Harris
This Week in Texas Music History, we’ll meet a singer who had a minty fresh moniker.
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Harrison Nelson, Jr., better known as Peppermint Harris, was born in Texarkana, Texas, on July 17, 1925. In the late 1940s, he moved to Houston where legendary bluesman, Lightnin’ Hopkins, helped him land his first recording session. The nickname, Peppermint Harris, was invented by a record producer who could not remember Nelson’s real name when it came time to label his records. In 1951, Harris scored a hit with the party anthem “I Got Loaded.”
Peppermint Harris tried to replicate the success of “I Got Loaded” with other alcohol-themed songs, including “Have Another Drink and Talk To Me.” However, his career languished until the mid-1990s, when he released two successful comeback albums, Texas on My Mind and Penthouse in the Ghetto, just a few years before he died in 1999.
Next time on This Week in Texas Music History, we’ll honor one of the Lone Star State’s very first female recording artists.
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