Kansas City / Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!

Travel is one of its subjects (Journey to retrieve partner), along with the motifs of relationship and americanism, one of 23 across the catalogue, 1965 being the year for it. The lyric turns to pastiche (faithful 1950s rock-and-roll cover), which this song is the first to do. An extrametrical rhyme arrives once, "Woo now girl / you". For anyone keeping count, the title is written with an exclamation mark and has carried two titles. Worth a footnote, the line "Five six seven eight nine" turns up in one other Beatles song, 'All Together Now'.

'Kansas City / Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!' is a rock and roll and R&B song in G major, around 131 BPM, and it owes something to blues. The tune carries call and response, one voice asking and the rest answering (lead vs backing in chorus/outro), which also turns up in 'Baby It's You', a year earlier. Listen to a lead vocal at full power (Little Richard-style screaming vocal) and yeah vocals. Underneath it is a plain 12-bar blues, the shape behind 32 of the Beatles' recordings, such as 'Little Child' and 'Chains'. A curiosity, the harmony moves G7 → C7 → G → D7 → C7 → G, the same shape 'Revolution' takes as B7 → E7 → B7 → F♯7 → E7 → B.

This track came out of EMI Studio 2, recorded in a single take during the marathon October 18 session, with George Martin overdubbing piano afterwards. Lennon played the Rickenbacker 325 on it, his guitar. It is taken out on a fade-out, one of 46 across the catalogue, 1967 being the year for it. Six songs were recorded the day this one was, the 63rd to the 68th of their career.

Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller and Little Richard wrote it, and McCartney sings lead. George Martin played piano, as he also did on 'You Like Me Too Much' and 'A Hard Day's Night'.

The track was never released as a single, arriving instead with Beatles For Sale, December 4, 1964. America got it six months later, on Beatles VI, put out by Capitol. This song was the 28th of the 35 records they released in that year, and the 62nd counting from the start.