Songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller had never visited Kansas City. Regardless of that, in 1952 they penned the famous blues tune that carries that city’s name. A decade later four lads from Liverpool recorded a medley of Kansas City and the Little Richard song Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey.
Both tunes are your garden-variety 12 Bar blues. When Wilbert Harrison had a number one smash with Kansas City in 1959 he recorded the song in C#. See if you can determine what key The Beatles chose to record the song.
Also, try that fancy strum and walk-up introduction to the song. It works well on a ukulele!
I don't know how you do it, Jim, but this is the second time we've done a song for the first time at Kern River Tuesday Ukes, only to find you've used it here the next day. And it wasn't even planned; we were introducing the basic blues form, and one of the group started singing "Kansas City".
It's magic!