Kansas City Kitty – Fiddle Tune a Day – Day 106

I don’t remember where I learned Kansas City Kitty, or where I first heard it, but I have known it for a long time, and it’s one of my favorite swing tunes to play.

One of my favorite memories of this tune was learning from Matt Wyatt that this tune has words, and hearing him sing them. 🙂

I recorded this at the end of the High Plains Music Festival in Douglas, WY. I was hoping to get to play with Reid Buckley and Jacob Means, but they managed to leave before I got to play with them for a second time. (We had fun jamming together Saturday night.) I was really hoping to record and post a couple of tunes that the performed Saturday night. They did a little bit of entertaining, and those boys sounded pretty tight.  Anyway, they left me high and dry for my Sunday tune, so I  got up on stage and played it solo. 😉

ps. Here’s a really cool recording of the Coon Sanders Nighthawk Orchestra playing Kansas City Kitty in 1929.

Kansas City Kitty Lyrics

Composer: Walter Donaldson

Lyricist: Edgar Leslie

Chicago Charlie was a good time Romeo

He’d love a gal, then whisper “goodbye, cheerio”

Just like Napoleon, love got Charlie too

Here’s how Chicago Charlie said he met his Waterloo

Chicago Charlie’s singing “no more wedding bells”

He’s got a sore throat singing “no more baby yells”

They wake the neighbors when they start to cry

And Charlie has to pacify them with this lullaby

Refrain:

I left Frisco Kate, swingin’ on the Golden Gate

When Kansas City Kitty smiled at me!

I left Ma and Pa, out in Omaha ha ha

When Kansas City Kitty smiled at me

She comes from Missouri and she showed me

Like a Texas steer she buffaloed me

Ev’ry Jim and Jack got the well known Hackensack

When Kansas City Kitty smiled at me

I just played the chill for the famous Diamond Lil

When Kansas City Kitty smiled at me

Folks in New Rochelle, said, “he ain’t done right by Nell”

Since Kansas City Kitty smiled at me

I gave Georgia Brown my watchcase Sunday

I gave Louisville Lou the “works” on Monday

I passed up those Queens, like you’d pass up Boston beans

When Kansas City Kitty smiled at me