Tune Req: Kansas City Kitty

Subject: RE: Kansas City Kitty
From: masato sakurai
Date: 15 Jul 02 - 12:32 AM

Dale, thanks for the link.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Kansas City Kitty
From: GUEST,Dale.
Date: 15 Jul 02 - 12:18 AM

http://www.nps.gov/edis/popsongs.htm MP3 available on the Edison National Historic Site, Kansas City Kitty Performed by: Billy Murray and his Melody Men Composed by: Edgar Leslie & Walter Donaldson Edison Diamond Disc Matrix Number: 19130-A-1-4 Release Number: 52559-L Recording Date: 1929 Release Date: 1929

Lots of nifty stuff on that page, and more if you click down at the bottom for the Back To Sounds link.

A nice instrumental version was available by The Hotmud Family on Vetco, I'm too lazy to look for my album, probably Stone Mountain Wobble, about 1974.

Subject: RE: Kansas City Kitty
From: masato sakurai
Date: 14 Jul 02 - 10:17 PM

From The Fiddler's Companion:

KANSAS CITY KITTY. American, Swing Tune (cut time). G Major. Standard. AA'B. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 2, 1995; pg. 70. Voyager 309, Benny & Jerry Thomasson - "The Weiser Reunion" (1993).

Here are sound clips which can be heard online:

Gretchen Van Houten & Joyce Yoxall (on Various Artists: The American Fogies, V. 2)

Brother Oswald (on Bashful Brother Oswald).

~Masato

Subject: RE: Kansas City Kitty
From: toadfrog
Date: 14 Jul 02 - 09:55 PM

Kansas City Kitty is originally that 1929 pop song noted above. Lots of songs morph into bluegrass. I tried to find it with a google search, but lacked patience to find any but the above site. Try google. But bear in mind, there also seems to be a blues singer yclept kansas city kitty, and most of those sites will be her.

Subject: RE: Kansas City Kitty
From: toadfrog
Date: 14 Jul 02 - 09:52 PM

Levy says this:

Title: Kansas City Kitty.
Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: Music by Walter Donaldson. Words by Edgar Leslie.
Edgar Leslie Publication: New York: Walter Donaldson, Donaldson-Douglas & Gumble, Inc., Music Publishers, 1595 Broadway, 1929.
Instrumentation: piano and voice; ukulele
Form of Composition: strophic with chorus
First Line: Chicago Charlie was a good time Romeo
First Line of Chorus: I left Frisco Kate, swingin' on the Golden Gate
Engraver, Lithographer, Artist: Pud Lane
Advertisement: ads on inside front and on back covers for Walter Donaldson stock
Plate Number: 36-3

A recording can be ordered from These folks Subject: Portraits
Subject: Bachelors
Subject: Interpersonal relations
Subject: Courtship
Subject: Deception
Subject: Travel
Subject: City & town life
Subject: Distress
Call No.: Box: 156 Item: 033a

These people claim to provide a free MP3 download. And that's the last time I go to a site that promises such a thing, it's like wading into a lake of sticky stuff. There are several sites out there with Kansas City Kitty advertized. Just bear in mind, most of them mean a blues artist & not a song.

Subject: Kansas City Kitty
From: MikeOQuinn
Date: 14 Jul 02 - 08:52 PM

Anyone know where I might be able to find a recording or sheet music for a bluegrass song called "Kansas City Kitty?" I've heard it as a fiddle/guitar/mandolin tune, but never seen any music for it.

Thanks!

-Mike