After the all-original A Hard Day’s Night, the Beatles had to resort to filling their follow-up LP with old-school covers, and frankly, they did a crappy job selecting them for the most part. This is the fifth of six of them to show up on the countdown, and we’re still in the bottom 50. (In fairness to Beatles for Sale, five of the six Please Please Me covers are in the bottom 40. Which of the remaining covers will outrank the other? The suspense is killing me, and this is my list. I can only imagine how you must feel.)
The Beatles covered two Little Richard songs in the studio, both in 1964 and both featuring rousing Paul McCartney vocals. “Kansas City” is a strong group performance, but I don’t really see it as any more exceptional than what other British Invasion groups were cranking out at the time, which is unfortunate because the Beatles are better than that. The Beatles were the chiefs of that scene, royals if you will.
Anthony Cusumano 