Cover Me: Kansas City

Even among frequently-covered songs, “Kansas City” stands out. Not only has pretty much everybody performed it on stage at one point or another, but there are more than three hundred recorded versions as well.

“Kansas City” was only the second hit song from famed songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, although it took a couple of tries to catch fire. When first recorded and released by Little Willie Littlefield in 1952 under the name “K.C. Loving” it attracted little notice.

It took seven years for “Kansas City” to catch hold, when Wilbert Harrison recorded his tighter version, with a terrific guitar solo by Wild Jimmy Spruill.

Harrison’s version went all the way to #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B charts, and that’s all it took to unleash an explosion of covers from Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, Bill Haley and His Comets, Fabian, Ann-Margaret, Lou Rawls, James Brown, and too many more to count.

And of course, it was famously recorded by The Beatles, who performed it in clubs from their earliest days and on television once they were stars.

Today, “Kansas City” is firmly enshrined in the Grammy Hall of Fame, and Rolling Stone cites it as one of 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. So of course, Bruce Springsteen was going to cover it sooner or later. The only question was where and when.

Bruce’s first known performance of “Kansas City” came surprisingly far into his career, at a private birthday party for Clarence Clemons in 1979 for which no audio circulates.

Two years later, however, Bruce broke out Leiber and Stoller’s oft-covered hit on the River Tour in… well, where else but Kansas City?

Bruce’s first public performance of “Kansas City” featured the mash-up with Little Richard’s “Hey Hey Hey Hey” from The Beatles’ arrangement,  as would most of his subsequent performances over the years. Most of those performances would be at club appearances, however, rather than “proper” tour concerts.

Surprisingly,  Bruce and the E Street Band only performed “Kansas City” twice more after that 1981 premiere, and the first one was more than two decades later on the Rising Tour in… yeah, you guessed it. More than twice the length of their earlier performance and far more assured, this is the E Street Band’s definitive performance of “Kansas City.”

In both 1981 and 2002, Bruce saved “Kansas City” for the encore, but in their final performance (to date) on the Wrecking Ball Tour (you know where), Bruce opened the show with it.

Their arrangement that night was by far the best of the three E Street Band performances, with Bruce making great use of the E Street Horns and Garry breaking out his stand-up bass for the occasion. Only the touch-too-sluggish tempo keeps this performance from being one of the best covers of the tour.

If you’re a fan of that brassy arrangement, check out Bruce’s performance with The Max Weinberg 7 from five years earlier–it’s a much stronger and energetic performance.

It’s been almost a decade since Bruce last performed “Kansas City,” but it’s one of those songs that’s too perennially popular to disappear for good. We’re almost certain to hear him play it again, hopefully someday soon.

Bonus: Most of Bruce’s off-tour performances have been via surprise guest appearances at Jersey Shore clubs. In 1982, Bruce joined Cats on a Smooth Surface at The Stone Pony; in 1989, he was with Bobby Bandiera at Martell’s Sea Breeze; in 1994, he played it with Joe Grushecky and The Houserockers at Marz American Style.

But one night in 1987, Bruce (and most of the E Street Band) joined Cats on a Smooth Surface on stage at The Stone Pony for a twelve-song set, and when they closed the show with a “Kansas City” encore, they were joined by another very special guest: Jon Bon Jovi. A couple of minutes of fragmented video exist from that performance–enjoy it below.

Kansas City
First performed: January 11, 1979 (Fair Haven, NJ)
Last performed: November 17, 2012 (Kansas City, MO)