In 1952 lyricist Jerry Leiber and tunesmith Mike Stoller couldn’t agree on the arrangement for “Kansas City” the song they wrote especially for West Coast artist, Little Willie Littlefield: Mike got his way though the title was changed to “K. C. Lovin’” after producer Ralph Bass thought it had more street cred.
Wilbert Harrison did the song live but it was 1959 before he took it to the studios in Harlem for Bobby Robinson’s Fury label. The arrangement was intended to emulate Littlefields but the solid groove actually came alive through the guitar solo of Wild Jimmy Spruill. So much so the single got to number 1 and sold a million copies, despite three other competing versions released the same week in April 1959.
Shortly after Harrison’s hit version Little Richard combined it with “Well Well Well Well” as a medley for his single version and live act. The medley inspired the remake the Beatles did on their album “For Sale” in 1964. The song has been covered 300 times including by Trini Lopez and by Peggy Lee with subsequent blues versions from Muddy Waters and Albert King. It was also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001
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