"Last Night" is an

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to inst ...

recorded by

The Mar-Keys The Mar-Keys, formed in 1958, were an American studio session band for Stax Records, in Memphis, Tennessee, in the 1960s. As the first house band for the label, their backing music formed the foundation for the early 1960s Stax sound. Career ...

. Released in 1961, the track appeared on ''Last Night!'', the first LP released by the

Stax Streaming API for XML (StAX) is an application programming interface ( API) to read and write XML documents, originating from the Java programming language community. Traditionally, XML APIs are either: * DOM based - the entire document is read i ...

label.

Background

The label of the single gives writing credit simply to "Mar-Keys"; it was registered with BMI as having been written by Charles Axton, Floyd Newman, Gilbert C. Caple, Jerry Lee Smith and Chips Moman. The song is in a twelve-bar blues form, with brief stops, where Floyd Newman intones "Last Night" before his saxophone solo, which is followed by him excaliming "Oh, yeah!" before the last three choruses, including the pauses, before the song's fade. According to Steve Cropper, in an interview with Paul Nassari of the ''Sunday Mail (Adelaide), Sunday Mail'' newspaper, in Adelaide, Australia, "Jerry Lee ‘Smoochy’ Smith came up with the piano riff that was played on organ. Since [producer Chips] Moman didn't want a guitar on it for whatever reason, I wound up playing the hold-down on the organ on the root note. It hurts me in the Mar-Keys history when people say I wasn’t in the Mar-Keys because there’s no guitar on Last Night but I have to differ with them."

Chart performance

"Last Night" reached #3 Billboard Hot 100, Pop and #2 in the R&B Record chart, charts in the United States.

Cover versions

*The tune was Cover version, covered by Georgie Fame on his 1966 ''Sweet Things'' album. *The Ventures released their take on the 1963 Dolton Records, Dolton album ''The Ventures Play Telstar and the Lonely Bull'', BST 8019. *Laurel Aitken & The Soulmen issued a 45 single version in 1966. *Ace Cannon opened his 1967 album ''Memphis Golden Hits'' with his version. *Screamin' Jay Hawkins released a risqué rendering titled "Bite it" on his record ''Because Is in Your Mind'' in 1970.
Because Is in Your Mind
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Samples

*The tune was sampled in 'Last Night' by Chris Anderson and DJ Robbie, and featured on their album of the same name. *Multiple elements from the track were heavily borrowed in the Duffy (singer), Duffy's 2008 worldwide hit "Mercy (Duffy song), Mercy".

Use in films, radio and television programs

*During the 1960s, "Last Night" became the title tune for the French radio show ''Salut les Copains'' on Europe 1. *The music was used during telecasts of the ''NBA on CBS'' in the 1970s (roughly around 1975–76 NBA season, 1975–76) as the play-by-play announcer gave a preview to the featured game. *The tune was Cover version, covered by Georgie Fame on his 1966 ''Sweet Things'' album and by the jazz ensemble The Bum Notes for the closing credits of the BBC sitcom ''Bottom (TV series), Bottom'' in the early 1990s. It was also used as the backing music to "Viaduct", a game played on the Chris Moyles radio show. *It is the theme tune to "The Midweek Special", a weekly show on Hospital Radio DGH in Eastbourne, England. *It featured in the 1988 Keanu Reeves film ''The Night Before (1988 film), The Night Before''. *It appeared in the 1998 film ''Blues Brothers 2000'', re-recorded by the Blues Brothers Band, and during the closing credits of the 2007 film ''Rush Hour 3''. *The music was also used in the legal comedy-drama ''Ally McBeal'' (1999, episode "Sideshow", second season).

References

{{authority control 1961 singles CBS Sports Songs written by Chips Moman 1961 songs 1960s instrumentals