Monday Music Rewind: Canned Heat – Let’s Work Together

Canned Heat is an American rock band that was formed in Los Angeles in 1965. The band was named after Tommy Johnson’s 1928 “Canned Heat Blues”, a song about an alcoholic who had desperately turned to drinking Sterno, generically called “canned heat.”

Canned Heat’s version of “Let’s Work Together” (originally written by Blues musician, Wilbert Harrison) was released in January 1970. It became their biggest hit, reaching number two on the UK Singles chart during a stay of fifteen weeks. It charted 26 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.(source)

Robert Ernest Hite (February 26, 1943 – April 5, 1981) was the co-lead vocalist of the American blues-rock band Canned Heat, from 1965 to his death in 1981. His nickname was “The Bear”. On April 5, 1981, during a break between sets at The Palomino Club in North Hollywood, Hite was handed a vial of heroin by a fan. He snorted it and began to get comatose, after which others unsuccessfully attempted to revive him with a large dose of cocaine. A group of roadies put Hite in a van and drove him to bandmate Fito de la Parra’s home, where he died.

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