‘The Last Time’: The iconic Rolling Stones hit inspired by a traditional gospel song
Few rock bands embodied the essence of rock and roll as profoundly as The Rolling Stones. While The Beatles may have ushered in a fresh style with an emphasis on the collective band, it was the Stones who played a pivotal role in shaping the genre’s gritty, edgier connotation.
This was evident in their alluring lyrics, delivered seductively by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, one enticing line after another. Although the 1960s were undeniably fruitful for them during the era of The British Invasion, The Rolling Stones embarked on a journey of creative evolution later in the 1970s.
Despite their legacy, however, it’s also widely known that the band, particularly Richards, has always been outspoken about the songs, eras, sounds, and albums that didn’t quite sit right. For instance, Richards notably criticises a lot of the Stones’ early work, even going so far as to state that they didn’t find their sound until years after their formation, with the hit 1965 ‘The Last Time’.
‘The Last Time’ is actually the first song Richards says defined their sound, explaining, “It took us a year or so to find our way through all that and find songs that we could feel comfortable about recording ourselves”. However, while ‘The Last Time’ achieved significant success, becoming one of the band’s most iconic era-specific sounds, the inspiration for it was initially something much different than you might expect.
While ‘The Last Time’ is officially attributed to Jagger and Richards, its refrain bears a striking resemblance to ‘This May Be the Last Time’, a traditional gospel track initially recorded in 1954 by the Staple Singers. After ‘The Last Time’ was released, many gospel fans thought The Rolling Stones ripped off the Staple Singers’ rendition, a move that left some feeling the the latter deserved more credit.
However, being a traditional song, the Staple Singers never actually owned the song, and so weren’t ever able to gain any royalties. That said, it still didn’t stop fans from discussing the ways that prominent artists and bands, like the Stones, tended to take songs originally by black artists and transform them into chart-topping hits.
In 2003, Richards openly acknowledged this connection, stating, “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”. Although it borrowed from the song, the Stones’ rendition did actually differ in a number of ways, like introducing a primary melody and a distinctive guitar riff, both of which were absent in the Staple Singers’ version. The song also features the distinctive ‘Wall of Sound’ technique associated with Phil Spector.
