James Last - Biography
By Scott Feemster
Though not widely known or popular in the United States, German musician, arranger and bandleader James Last is wildly popular in the rest of the world, especially Europe. Over the course of a 50+ year career, Last has recorded and released over 200 albums of his big band arrangements of popular music hits of the day and standards and has sold in excess of 100 million albums worldwide. He is still active up to the present day, and in recent years has released as many as eight albums in a single year.
James Last was born Hans Last on April 17, 1929 in Bremen, Germany. Young Hans was given classical piano lessons as a child, but when he reached his teenage years, he switched over to the double bass. At the height of World War II, the teenage Last, nicknamed “Hansi”, was given the choice of working either in the wartime armament factories or enrolling in a music school. Last was enrolled in the Buckeburg Military Music School, part of the German Nazi-era Wehrmacht, (the German united armed forces). After the Nazi's were defeated, a flood of Allied soldiers were stationed in Germany, and they and the native German people were keen to dance and be entertained, so the time was ripe for swing bands and dance orchestras. Last joined Hans-Gunther Osterreich's Radio Bremen Dance Orchestra, along with his brothers Werner and Robert, in 1946 as a bassist, and picked up valuable skills as a performer and arranger. In 1948, Last left the Orchestra and formed his own group, the Last-Becker Ensemble, and led this band for the next seven years. During his time playing with his ensemble, he was recognized in Germany for his bass playing, and was voted as the best bassist in the country via a German jazz poll for three consecutive years in the early 1950's. After Last disbanded his Ensemble in 1955, he became an orchestrator and arranger for several European radio stations and also became the in-house arranger for the European branch of Polydor Records. For the next ten years, Last helmed sessions and arranged and orchestrated hits for such European stars as Caterina Valente, Lolita, Alfred Hause, Helmut Zacharias and Freddy Quinn. Last would be associated with Polydor Records for the next forty years.
By the early 60's, Last wanted to become a recording artist in his own right. At first he released some light pop instrumental albums in Europe under the name Hans Last and also under Orlando Last, but finally Anglicized his first name to James. One of his early efforts, that featured a sound similar to Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, was released in the United States under the name James Last and the American Patrol. The album was mostly ignored, and so Last went back to the drawing board to come up with something original that would appeal to a wide audience. Going back to his days in dance bands and drawing on the German fondness for medleys, that is, longer songs that segue from one melodic line of a popular song to another, Last hit upon a formula of having a studio orchestra, under his guidance, play popular hits of the day, and segue them together into longer, more danceable tracks. Last stretched what began as 3 and 4 minute pop songs into 20 minute dance symphonies, and added background sounds of talking, laughter and clapping along in rhythm to suggest the whole thing was recorded at an incredible party. When the debut album by The James Last Orchestra, Non Stop Dancing (Polydor), came out in 1965, it dove-tailed perfectly with the rise in popularity of discotheques. The album was an immediate success in Europe and quickly made Last a major star. Though he was older than most of his new, younger audience, Last sported facial hair and wore more hip, mod-style clothes, and thus appealed to them as well as their parents by playing music that was danceable, but not too threatening.
Last knew a good formula when he found it, and spent the next twenty or so years cranking out album after album in the style of Non-Stop Dancing. Whatever trends or pop songs came along, he would orchestrate them, make them into medleys, make them danceable, and then issue an album. Some selected titles from this period include Non-Stop Dancing '66 (1965), Hammond A Go Go (1965), Classics Up To Date (1966), Piano A Go Go (1968), Humba Humba A Go Go (1968), Non Stop Evergreens (1969), Beachparty (1970), In Scandinavia (1971), Polka Party (1971), Sax and Violins A Go Go (1974), James Last Live (1974), Well Kept Secret (1975), Happy Summer Night (1976),and Western Party And Square Dance (1977)(All titles on Polydor). During the 70's, Last also hosted his own variety show on German television, which included performances by popular European stars of the time, including Lynsey de Paul and ABBA.
Though Last had an impressive run of hit albums, he really only had one hit single, “The Seduction”, his interpretation of the theme from the 1980 Richard Gere film American Gigolo. Last continued on into the 80's, 90's and 2000's performing concerts around the world and cranking out albums that were either collections of his interpretations of pop hits of the day or variations on his Non-Stop Dancing formula. Last was particularly popular in the United Kingdom, charting 52 hit albums from the years 1967-1986, making him the second most popular album artist of the era behind Elvis Presley. Occasionally he would collaborate with other singers or instrumentalists, including Astrud Gilberto, Englebert Humperdink and Richard Clayderman, to name just a few. Some selected titles from this period include Seduction (1980), Hansimania (1981), Biscaya (1982), whose title track was a minor hit, The Rose Of Tralee (1983), James Last In Scotland (1984), Viva Vivaldi (1985), Romantic Dreams (1987), Bluesbird (1990), Plays Andrew Lloyd Webber (1997), Paradiesvogel (1998), Classics From Russia (2000), Plays Abba (2002)(Universal International), They Call Me Hansi (2005)(Universal International), Music From Across The Way (2005)(Universal International), and James Last In Los Angeles (2008)(All titles Polydor except where noted). Last shows no signs of slowing down, even though he is well into his 70's, and continues to split his time between homes in Germany and Florida. Sadly, James Last passed away June 9th 2015 at the age of 86.