Wilbert Harrison - "Kansas City"
Hit Number 1: May 18, 1959
Stay at Number 1: 2 Weeks
Something that I've noticed about late 50s and early 60s music, is that they use blues formats a lot. Let's take a few previous entries as examples. "Stagger Lee", "The Happy Organ", and now today's entry, "Kansas City", all use some variation of blues formats. I think it all started with Bill Haley & the Comets' "(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock" (a 10, obviously) which helped start the rock and roll craze and the bluesy sound. I think "Kansas City" is a true and obvious example of that sound.
A Charlotte North Carolina native, Harrison ended up making "Kansas City" a major hit in 1959 when it hit #1. But the song was around for a few years before he got a hold of it. The song was written by the legendary songwriting duo of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in 1952. An artist by the name of "Little Willie Littlefield" first recorded the song the same year it was written, but it seems that that version never went anywhere. Instead the public went crazy for Harrison's version in 1959. Apparently, the song is one of Leiber and Stoller's most recorded songs, as it has supposedly been recorded over 300 times. But again, Wilbert Harrison has the most recognized and ultimately successful version.
The song itself is fine, but there's nothing real special about it. It has that iconic blues sound, and it draws some comparisons to "The Happy Organ" that came before it. But "Kansas City" isn't quite as awesome as "The Happy Organ". Instead it's less energetic and is more of a "laid back bluesy song". It has a pretty neat guitar solo, and Harrison has some personality in his voice, but the song still doesn't give me anything more than "it's alright" vibes. The song is about a dude who is going through some tough times with his current lover, and goes to Kansas City because "they got some crazy little women there, and I'm gonna get me one". It's pretty much a song about cheating on someone.
Harrison didn't have any other real notable hits, and after "Kansas City", he pretty much went away forever. He recorded some songs, some becoming real minor hits, but nothing even came close to being as popular as "Kansas City" was. Harrison would later retire from the music business, and he died in 1994 of a stroke. He was 65.
GRADE: 6/10
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