Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey

The ticket pictured above is from a concert that was not supposed to happen.  Kansas City was not on the itinerary of the 1964 North American tour, but Charles O. Finley, owner of the Kansas City Athletics baseball team, was determined to bring The Beatles to his stadium.  September 17th was scheduled as a rare day off for the group so they could remain in New Orleans and explore that city.  Knowing this, Finley went in person to see the band's manager Brian Epstein at the start of the tour in San Francisco and offered $50,000 for a performance on the 17th.  When refused, he upped the offer to $100,000.  Days later, in Los Angeles, they agreed upon $150,000 - a record at the time.

On the night of the concert, the Beatles pulled out the old chestnut Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey from their pre-fame repertoire and used it to open the show.  Had they not done so, it's very likely that they might not have thought of the song and decided to record it a month later for their fourth album Beatles for Sale.

George Harrison said that the song was originally added to their set list in Hamburg to help fill the long, grueling hours they were required to play.  The Star Club tapes from December 1962 contain a rousing, fast-paced version of the number, though the vocals do not match the intensity of the driving arrangement.

Though the performance was never aired, Granada Television taped the Beatles playing the number in the Cavern Club in Liverpool in August of 1962, only days after Ringo joined the group.  The boys later revived the song for their BBC radio program Pop Go the Beatles in July of 1963, as can be heard on The Beatles Live at the BBC.  They also played it twice on their other BBC radio show From Us to You in May and July of '64.

Following the North American tour, the boys played the song live in the studio (not mimed, as was often the case) for the US TV show Shindig.  This fine performance was taped in London at the Granville Studio in early October, 1964 before an invited house of screaming fan club members.

The recording session for the album Beatles for Sale took place on October 18th.  Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey was one of eight numbers completed on this productive day.  They only attempted two takes, and take one proved to be the keeper.  In his book Here, There and Everywhere, engineer Geoff Emerick reports that even Ringo joined in with John and George on the spirited backing vocals during the Hey Hey Hey Hey call-and-response section of the song.  By the way, take two, which is available on Anthology 1, is almost as good, except for George's guitar solo.

The boys did mime to the song for the TV program Ready, Steady, Go! in late November.  And they visited the number one last time on the BBC radio show Saturday Club only a few days later to promote the new album.  This performance appears on On Air - Live at the BBC, volume 2.

The American equivalent of Beatles for Sale was the album Beatles '65, but the song did not appear there.  Capitol Records chose to hold on to the song for six months before using it to open the compilation album Beatles VI, released in June of 1965.  The song was simply listed as Kansas City on the jacket and label, and credited to Jerry Stoller and Mike Lieber.  But the arrangement used by the Beatles was created by Little Richard Penniman (his verses bear little resemblance to the original lyrics), who had turned the song into a medley with his own Hey Hey Hey Hey.  His publishing company took legal action against Capitol, much to the amusement of Lieber and Stoller, who had never done the same to Little Richard for tampering with their composition.