"Last Night" is an

instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...

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 Stax can refer to: * StAX, (Computer Programming) Streaming API for reading and writing XML in Java * Stax Ltd, a Japanese brand of electrostatic headphones * Stax Records Stax Records is an American record company, originally based in Memphis, ...

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 Charles Everett "Packy" Axton (February 17, 1941 – January 20, 1974) was an American rhythm and blues tenor saxophone player and bandleader, who was a member of the Mar-Keys and later the Packers. Early life Charles Everett "Packy" Axton was ...

, Floyd Newman, Gilbert C. Caple, Jerry Lee Smith and

Chips Moman Lincoln Wayne "Chips" Moman (June 12, 1937 – June 13, 2016) was an American record producer, guitarist, and songwriter. He is known for working in R&B, pop music and country music, operating American Sound Studios and producing hit albums li ...

. The song is in a

twelve-bar blues The twelve-bar blues (or blues changes) is one of the most prominent chord progressions in popular music. The blues progression has a distinctive form in lyrics, phrase, chord structure, and duration. In its basic form, it is predominantly ba ...

form, with brief stops, where Floyd Newman intones "Last Night" before his saxophone solo, which is followed by him exclaiming "Oh, yeah!" before the last three choruses, including the pauses, before the song's fade. According to

Steve Cropper Steven Lee Cropper (born October 21, 1941), sometimes known as "The Colonel", is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He was the guitarist of the Stax Records house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, which backed artists such as ...

, in an interview with Paul Nassari of the '' Sunday Mail'' newspaper, in

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

, Australia, "Jerry Lee ‘Smoochy’ Smith came up with the piano riff that was played on organ. Since roducer ChipsMoman 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

Pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

and #2 in the R&B

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent t ...

in the United States. In Canada, the song reached #21 on the

CHUM Chart The CHUM Chart is a long-running Canadian hit parade countdown radio show, originally aired on Toronto radio station CHUM AM then later revived on its sister station CHUM-FM. It consisted of 50 top tunes from May 1957 to July 1968, but in Augus ...

Cover versions

*The Ventures released their take on the 1963 Dolton Records album ''

The Ventures Play Telstar and the Lonely Bull ''The Ventures Play Telstar and the Lonely Bull'' is an album by the band the Ventures, released in 1963. It consists entirely of cover versions of popular instrumentals from the late 1950s to early 1960s (all of which reached the Top 15 on Bill ...

'', BST 8019. *The tune was covered by Georgie Fame on his 1966 '' Sweet Things'' album. * Laurel Aitken & The Soulmen issued a 45 rpm single version in 1966. *

Ace Cannon John Henry "Ace" Cannon (May 5, 1934 – December 6, 2018) was an American tenor and alto saxophonist. He played and toured with Hi Records stablemate Bill Black's Combo, and started a solo career with his record "Tuff" in 1961, using the Blac ...

opened his 1967 album ''Memphis Golden Hits'' with his version. *

King Curtis Curtis Montgomery (February 7, 1934 – August 13, 1971), known professionally as King Curtis, was an American saxophonist who played rhythm and blues, jazz, and rock and roll. A bandleader, band member, and session musician, he was also a musi ...

covered the song on his 1967 album ''King Curtis Plays the Great Memphis Hits''. *

Screamin' Jay Hawkins Jalacy J. "Screamin' Jay" Hawkins (July 18, 1929 – February 12, 2000) was an American singer-songwriter, musician, actor, film producer, and boxer. Famed chiefly for his powerful, shouting vocal delivery and wildly theatrical performances of s ...

released a risqué rendering titled "Bite it" on his record ''Because Is in Your Mind'' in 1970.
Because Is in Your Mind
', Discogs

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's 2008 worldwide hit "

Mercy Mercy (Middle English, from Anglo-French , from Medieval Latin , "price paid, wages", from Latin , "merchandise") is benevolence, forgiveness, and kindness in a variety of ethical, religious, social, and legal contexts. In the social and le ...

". Also was used in the Ken Burns "Baseball" ten part PBS Series, 1994

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 ''NBA on CBS'' is an Television in the United States, American television sports presentation show broadcast by CBS. It aired from October 20, 1973 to June 14, 1990. The branding is used for the presentation of the National Basketball Associatio ...

'' in the 1970s (roughly around 1975–76) as the play-by-play announcer gave a preview to the featured game. *The tune was covered by the

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

ensemble

The Bum Notes ''Bottom'' is a British sitcom created by Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson that ran for three series on BBC2 from 1991 to 1995. It focuses on Richard "Richie" Richard (Mayall) and Edward Elizabeth "Eddie" Hitler (Edmondson), two unemployed, crude, ...

for the closing credits of the BBC sitcom '' Bottom'' in the early 1990s. *It was also used as the backing music to "Viaduct", a game played on the

Chris Moyles Christopher David Moyles (born 22 February 1974) is an English radio and television presenter, author and presenter of '' The Chris Moyles Show'' on Radio X. Previously he presented '' The Chris Moyles Show'' on BBC Radio 1 from 2004 to 2012 ...

radio show. *It is the theme tune to "The Midweek Special", a weekly show on Hospital Radio DGH in Eastbourne, England. *KNOE TV-8 in Monroe, Louisiana once utilized the tune as the theme music for the weekly program ‘’Sportscope’’. *It featured in the 1988

Keanu Reeves Keanu Charles Reeves ( ; born September 2, 1964) is a Canadian actor and musician. The recipient of numerous accolades in a career on screen spanning four decades, he is known for his leading roles in action films, his amiable public imag ...

film '' The Night Before''. *It appeared in the 1998 film ''

Blues Brothers 2000 ''Blues Brothers 2000'' is a 1998 American musical action comedy film directed by John Landis from a screenplay written by Landis and Dan Aykroyd, both of whom were also producers, and starring Aykroyd and John Goodman. The film serves as a seq ...

'', re-recorded by the Blues Brothers Band, and during the closing credits of the 2007 film ''

Rush Hour 3 ''Rush Hour 3'' is a 2007 American Buddy Cop film, buddy cop action comedy film directed by Brett Ratner, written by Jeff Nathanson. It is the third installment in the Rush Hour (franchise), ''Rush Hour'' franchise and sequel to ''Rush Hour 2'' ...

''. *The music was used in the legal comedy-drama ''

Ally McBeal ''Ally McBeal'' is an American legal comedy-drama television series created by David E. Kelley that originally aired on Fox from September 8, 1997, to May 20, 2002. It revolves around Calista Flockhart in the title role as a lawyer working ...

'' (1999, episode "Sideshow", second season). *The music was used in Netflix and Aardman Animated movie ‘’ Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget’’.

References

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