Wilbert Harrison was born in North Carolina, was a mostly unsuccessful singer in Florida, then moved to Newark and recorded “Kansas City,” written by the songwriting duo, Jerome Leiber and Mike Stoller, and released by Little Willie Littlefield in 1952. Harrison “found his single competing on the charts with five other versions,” but his “quickly beat out the rest…’Kansas City’ instantly became a blues standard and was recorded by the Beatles in 1964” (Steve Futterman, Rolling Stone, 12/15/94).
Mike Stoller: “Jerry and I had originally called the song ’Kansas City,’ but Federal had the publishing rights...We thought changing the title was dumb since there was no change in the music or lyrics. I also thought the new title was too obscure and probably would keep the song from being recorded by other artists. I was right--for seven years” (Marc Myers, Anatomy of a Song, 2016).
Wilbert Harrison “Kansas City”
Little Willie Littlefield “K. C. Loving”
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