Origins: Last Kiss (Wayne Cochran)

Subject: pearl jam-last kiss
From: mir
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 02:41 PM

Does anyone know who did the original version of this song that begins "Oh where oh where can my baby be? The Lord took her away from me...."

Subject: Lyr Add: LAST KISS (Wayne Cochran)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 03:18 PM

Pearl Jam did this? Who are they? I think I'm getting old....
I think we had a thread of 1960's dead girlfriend/boyfriend songs (including this one) a while back, but I have no idea where to find it. It's a great song, isn't it? You may say it ain't folk, but I think these songs may someday be a whole new series of Child Ballads.
-Joe Offer-

LAST KISS
(words & music by Wayne Cochran, 1961)
also recorded by J. Frank Wilson and The Cavaliers

Well, where oh where can my baby be?
The Lord took her away from me.
She's gone to heaven, so I got to be good,
so I can see my baby when I leave this world.

We were out on a date in my daddy's car.
We hadn't driven very far.
There in the road, straight ahead ...
The car was stalled, the engine was dead.
I couldn't stop, so I swerved to the right.
Never forget the sound that night ...
The cryin' tires, the bustin' glass.
The painful scream that I heard last.

Well, where oh where can my baby be?
The Lord took her away from me.
She's gone to heaven, so I got to be good,
so I can see my baby when I leave this world.

Well, when I woke up, the rain was pourin' down.
There were people standing all around.
Something warm running in my eyes,
but I found my baby somehow that night.
I raised her head, and when she smiled, and said,
"Hold me darling for a little while."
I held her close. I kissed her our last kiss.
I found the love that I knew I would miss.
But now she's gone, even though I hold her tight.
I lost my love ... my life, that night.

Well, where oh where can my baby be?
The Lord took her away from me.
She's gone to heaven, so I got to be good,
so I can see my baby when I leave this world.

Subject: RE: pearl jam-last kiss
From: Bob Landry
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 05:40 PM

I was very pleasantly surprised when I heard Pearl Jam's version ... they do a respectable job on this song.

Bob

Subject: RE: pearl jam-last kiss
From: Helen
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 06:55 PM

Bob,

I haven't heard Pearl Jam do this song, but I like a lot of their stuff - words, music, singing, playing. WHich album is this one on?

Helen

Subject: RE: pearl jam-last kiss
From: Helen
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 07:01 PM

I take it back, I have heard it. I just listened to a sample at CD-Now via the Support Mudcat page.

Last Kiss sound sample (Real Audio)

http://www.cdnow.com/cgi-bin/mserver/SID=714778230/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/artistid=PEARL+JAM/itemid=658371

Helen

Subject: RE: pearl jam-last kiss
From: Dale Rose
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 07:37 PM

Here is what I noticed on the link supplied by Helen.

One hundred percent of the net proceeds received by Sony Music from sales of this single will be donated to CARE in support of their efforts to provide food, shelter and other basic needs to the refugees of Kosovo.

Subject: RE: pearl jam-last kiss
From: Barbara
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 09:27 PM

Next question, who was it popularized it in the 60's? I don't remember the name "Cavaliers", seems like it was someone better known.
12 year old daughter and I were listening to this on the radio in the car the other day, and she was really surprised that I knew the words. It made me remember how shocked I was that MY mother knew the words to "I told every little star..."- what was that called? -- "Why Haven't I Told You"?
I can hardly wait for Pearl Jam's cover of "Teen Angel". some things just never change.
Blessings
Barbara

Subject: RE: pearl jam-last kiss
From: catspaw49
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 10:16 PM

The BEST cover for "Teen Angel" was by "Muledeer and Moondog"

Spaw

Subject: RE: pearl jam-last kiss
From: WyoWoman
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 11:01 PM

I had exactly the same response from my 22-year-old daughter this summer when Pearl Jam's version came on andI started singing the lyrics. I can't wait til Smash Mouth does "Mareseatoats and doeseatoats..." or however it's spelled!

WW

Subject: RE: pearl jam-last kiss
From: campfire
Date: 03 Aug 99 - 11:27 PM

Joe's right, there was a thread on this not too long ago. Barbara - I don't know about the 60's, but in 1973 it was popular at least around here (Midwest US) by a group called Wednesday. (I have the 45)

campfire

Subject: RE: Origins: Last Kiss (Wayne Cochran)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 03 May 03 - 11:55 PM

Here's a credible-sounding story copied from http://members.tripod.com/bennyjets/lastkiss.html

The story: Sixteen-year-old Jeanette Clark was out on a date in Barnesville, Georgia on December 22, 1962, the Saturday before Christmas. She was with a group of friends in a '54 Chevrolet. J. L. Hancock, also sixteen, was driving the car in heavy traffic and while traveling on Highway 341, collided with a trailer truck. Jeanette, the driver, and another teenager were killed, and two other teens in the car were seriously injured. Most had been students at Gordon Military College. It was a terribly gory accident and provoked an intense reaction in Barnesville.

Living about fifteen miles away in an old shack for which he was paying $20 a month rent was Wayne Cochran, a white R&B singer and composer. Wayne saw accident after accident on the busy stretch of highway on which he lived. He had written a song about all the accidents and left it unfinished, until he heard about the tragedy in Barnesville. He completed the song and dedicated it to the memory of Jeanette Clark. He called it Last Kiss.

Wayne sang the song locally and, when people liked it, he recorded it for the small Gala Records label. It caught on in Georgia, and Wayne tried to promote sales of the record the only way he knew how: he loaded a bunch of 45's in the trunk of his car and went around selling them. It was not very effective. He later recorded the song for another record label, but the owner wouldn't promote it.

A recording executive in Fort Worth, Texas, Major Bill Smith (who had produced Bruce Channel's "Hey! Baby" and Paul and Paula's "Hey Paula") heard it. He liked the song. Major Bill Smith had a group in Fort Worth who were with his Josie label. This group, called the Cavaliers, had formed in San Angelo, Texas, and consisted of Phil Trunzo, Bobby Woods, Jerry Graham, and George Croyle. Major Bill paired them with a twenty-two-year-old singer from Lufkin, Texas named John Frank Wilson. The record was released as Last Kiss, by J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers, on the Josie label. It entered the charts in September, 1964 and was a huge success.

J. Frank Wilson was born in 1941 in Lufkin, Texas and had worked as a hospital orderly. He was in a terrible automobile accident himself in Ohio some time after Last Kiss became a hit. Wilson died in Lufkin in 1991. Major Bill Smith also died in the 90's. Wayne Cochran, who performed on Jackie Gleason's television show in Miami in the 60's, is now a preacher.

Last Kiss went as high as number two on the charts in 1964.

Subject: RE: Origins: Last Kiss (Wayne Cochran)
From: Ely
Date: 04 May 03 - 10:12 PM

I know a guy here in Houston who played bass for the Cavaliers (I don't think he's the one on the recording; I think he joined them later). He often plays the song at open mic nights.