{"id":967,"date":"2026-08-31T15:55:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T15:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/civatar.com\/suziqsthoughts\/?p=967"},"modified":"2026-08-31T15:55:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T15:55:27","slug":"mm-1961-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/civatar.com\/suziqsthoughts\/2026\/08\/31\/mm-1961-3\/","title":{"rendered":"MM &#8211; 1961"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-white-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-7e4ac651328708ea719ac0894fa30934\">.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"483\" height=\"750\" src=\"https:\/\/civatar.com\/suziqsthoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/08\/image-9.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-971\" srcset=\"https:\/\/civatar.com\/suziqsthoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/08\/image-9.png 483w, https:\/\/civatar.com\/suziqsthoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/08\/image-9-193x300.png 193w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 483px) 100vw, 483px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-white-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-7e4ac651328708ea719ac0894fa30934\">.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"J Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers - Last Kiss\" width=\"1140\" height=\"855\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bh4se9YMV3A?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-white-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-7e4ac651328708ea719ac0894fa30934\">.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>&#8220;Last Kiss&#8221; is a song written by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wayne_Cochran\">Wayne Cochran<\/a>\u00a0and first recorded by Cochran in 1961 for the Gala label. Cochran&#8217;s version failed to do well on the charts.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Last_Kiss#cite_note-vh1Thank-2\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/sup>Cochran re-recorded his song for the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/King_Records_(United_States)\">King label<\/a>\u00a0in 1963. It was revived by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/J._Frank_Wilson_and_the_Cavaliers\">J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers<\/a>, who took it to number two on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Billboard_Hot_100\"><em>Billboard<\/em>\u00a0Hot 100<\/a>\u00a0charts.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wednesday_(Canadian_band)\">Wednesday<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pearl_Jam\">Pearl Jam<\/a>, and several international artists also covered the song, with varying degrees of success.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\" id=\"mwIg\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wayne_Cochran\">Wayne Cochran<\/a>\u00a0was initially inspired to write &#8220;Last Kiss&#8221; after having lived near a dangerous stretch of two-lane rural highway where several collisions occurred yearly.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Last_Kiss#cite_note-vh1Thank-2\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/sup>He began writing the song in 1956 or 1957, coming up with the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chord_progression\">chord progression<\/a>, first verse, and chorus, but became stuck and abandoned the song for several years.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\" id=\"mwLQ\"><strong>Cochran has claimed he was inspired to finish the song when he heard that a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Friend_of_a_friend\">friend of a friend<\/a>, 16-year-old Vera Janette &#8220;Jennie&#8221; Clark, had died in an automobile collision while on her first date. However, Clark&#8217;s death occurred in December 1962, over a year after Cochran recorded the song, and five years after he says he finished writing it.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>. . . &#8220;Last Kiss&#8221; is a song written by\u00a0Wayne Cochran\u00a0and first recorded by Cochran in 1961 for the Gala label. Cochran&#8217;s version failed to do well on the charts.\u00a0\u00a0Cochran re-recorded his song for the\u00a0King label\u00a0in 1963. It was revived by\u00a0J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers, who took it to number two on the\u00a0Billboard\u00a0Hot 100\u00a0charts.\u00a0Wednesday,\u00a0Pearl [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/civatar.com\/suziqsthoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/civatar.com\/suziqsthoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/civatar.com\/suziqsthoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/civatar.com\/suziqsthoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/civatar.com\/suziqsthoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/civatar.com\/suziqsthoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/civatar.com\/suziqsthoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/civatar.com\/suziqsthoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/civatar.com\/suziqsthoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}