Last Kiss is a song released by Wayne Cochran in 1961 on the Gala label. It failed to do well on the Charts. Cochran subsequently re-recorded his song for the King label in 1963. It was revived by J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers, who took it to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 Charts. Wednesday, Pearl Jam, and several international artists also covered the song with varying degrees of success. The song was one of several teen tragedy songs from the period.
Pearl Jam recorded the song for the 1999 charity album
No Boundaries: A Benefit for the Kosovar Refugees. The song would later appear on the group's 2003 rarities album
Lost Dogs. This version was successful, especially in Australia, where it topped the ARIA Singles Chart for seven weeks. It also reached No. 1 in Iceland for six weeks and peaked at No. 2 in the United States and Canada, making it the band's highest-charting single in either country.
The idea to cover Last Kiss came about after vocalist Eddie Vedder found an old record of the song at the Fremont Antique Mall in Seattle, Washington. He convinced the rest of the band to try out the song and it was performed a few times on the band's 1998 tour. The band eventually recorded the song at a soundcheck at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland in September of that year and released it as a 1998 fan club Christmas single. The band spent only a couple of thousand dollars mixing the song. Bassist Jeff Ament said, "It was the most minimalist recording we've ever done."
In 1998 the cover of Last Kiss began to be played by radio stations and was ultimately put into heavy rotation across the United States. By popular demand the cover was released to the public as a single on June 8, 1999. The proceeds went to the aid of refugees of the Kosovo War. The song helped earn about $10 million for Kosovo relief.
The cover would end up reaching No. 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100, behind If You Had My Love by Jennifer Lopez. This remains Pearl Jam's highest-peaking song on the Billboard Hot 100. It peaked at No. 4 on the Top 40 Mainstream Chart. The song reached No. 5 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and No. 2 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks Chart. The Last Kiss single has been certified gold by the RIAA.
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