Saturday January 22, 2022 “The Last Kiss” J. Frank Wilson & the Cavaliers
There are song of the dayers who will know this song from the J. Frank Wilson version featured today and then there are those who will know the more recent Pearl Jam/Eddie Vedder version and there’s a funny story about those songs but we'll get to that in a bit. Whichever group you fit into my mission today is to change the way you think of this foolishly morbid but poppy song…well the J. Frank Wilson version is poppy.
So you’re thinking who wakes up in the morning, gets out his guitar and then writes a pop song about a car crash… and in this case it’s Wayne Cochran, more on him in a bit also.
Turns out this song was inspired by actual events that are even worse than the lyrics of “Last Kiss” allude to. Here’s the accounting of the accident that inspired to the song:
On December 22, 1962, five teenagers were riding in a 1954 Chevy on Highway 341 in rural Barnesville, Georgia. The driver was J.L Hancock, a 16-year-old who was dating Jeanette Clark, also 16 and riding in the front seat next to him. Beside her was Wayne Cooper; two other passengers, Jewel Emerson and Ed Shockley, were in the back seat.
It was foggy, and by the time Hancock saw a flatbed truck stalled on the highway, it was too late. He crashed into it, going under the truck and killing everyone in the front seat; the two passengers in the back survived with serious injuries.
I guess now is a good moment for the funny story promised.
My friend Hal was riding in the car with his Pearl Jam fan, teenage daughter when J. Frank Wilson's version of “Last Kiss” came on the radio. His daughter immediately declared ‘What stupid group would even dream of covering Pearl Jam!” When he stopped laughing Hal explained to his daughter that it was in fact Pearl Jam that was doing the covering. Pretty sure she chose not to believe her father.
Oh yeah, songwriter Wayne Cochran, he had his hair styled into a two foot high blond pompador and a band called Wayne Cochran and the CC Riders who had a minor hit with “Going Back to Miami” which, since we’re dealing with covers, was done later by the Blues Brothers. The interesting thing about Cochran beyond his hair and “Last Kiss” is that the bass player in his band, the CC Riders, was Jaco Pastorius who would go on to revolutionize the way the bass was played and be one of the most innovative, respected and famous jazz bass players ever.
Stay safe and well…and c’mon you knew our last kiss song had to be “Last Kiss”.