Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Kansas City (Hey Hey Hey Hey) by The Beatles – ***

First released: 1964

I never quite understood why Little Richard composed the inane “hey, hey, hey, hey” part of this song and also changed the lyrics, but this is the version that The Beatles decided to record when they were looking for songs to cover on "Beatles For Sale". A demo version appears on "Anthology 1" in 1995. A 1963 radio version appears on 1994's "Live at the BBC". The Beatles performed it live on "Live at the Star-Club, Hamburg 1962" in 1977.

Later on, McCartney set the record straight by doing a version of the Leiber/Stoller original with the original lyrics for his "Choba B CCCP" album in 1988. Paul performs a live version for 1993’s "Paul is Live".

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