“The Last Time” is a song by the English rock band The Rolling Stones, and the band’s first single written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Recorded at RCA Studios in Hollywood, California in January 1965, “The Last Time” was the band’s third UK single to reach No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart, spending three weeks at the top in March and early April 1965. It reached No. 2 in the Irish Singles Chart in March 1965. Although “The Last Time” is credited to Jagger/Richards, the song’s refrain is very close to “This May Be the Last Time”, a 1958 track by The Staple Singers. In 2003, Richards acknowledged this, saying: “We came up with ‘The Last Time’, which was basically re-adapting a traditional gospel song that had been sung by the Staple Singers, but luckily the song itself goes back into the mists of time.” The Rolling Stones’ song has a main melody and a hook (a distinctive guitar riff) that were both absent in the Staple Singers’ version. Phil Spector, whose “Wall of Sound” approach can be heard on the recording, assisted with the production. (More from Wikipedia)
“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” was the Rolling Stones’ first #1 hit in America; and believe it or not, that did not happen until the Stones had released some 12 or 15 previous singles over nearly a two-year period. Their previous Top 10 hits were “Time Is on My Side” and “The Last Time”. “Satisfaction” was released in the US 50 years ago, in June 1965. After that, there was no stopping them.
I found another great Keith Richards quote on SongFacts concerning “The Last Time” – the 45 that was released right before “Satisfaction” – as taken from the 2003 book According to the Rolling Stones: “We didn’t find it difficult to write pop songs, but it was VERY difficult – and I think Mick [Jagger] will agree – to write one for the Stones. It seemed to us it took months and months and in the end we came up with ‘The Last Time’, which was basically re-adapting a traditional Gospel song that had been sung by the Staple Singers, but luckily the song itself goes back into the mists of time. I think I was trying to learn it on the guitar just to get the chords, sitting there playing along with the record, no gigs, nothing else to do. At least we put our own stamp on it, as the Staple Singers had done, and as many other people have before and since: They’re still singing it in churches today. It gave us something to build on to create the first song that we felt we could decently present to the band to play. . . . ‘The Last Time’ was kind of a bridge into thinking about writing for the Stones. It gave us a level of confidence; a pathway of how to do it. And once we had done that, we were in the game. There was no mercy, because then we had to come up with the next one. We had entered a race without even knowing it.”
