Blue tango james last biography

German composer and big band leader (–)

Musical artist

James Last (German pronunciation:[tʃeɪmslast], [dʃeɪmslɑːst]; born Hans Last; 17 April &#; 9 June ),^[1] also known as Hansi Last, was a German composer and big band leader of the James Last Orchestra.

Initially a jazz bassist, his trademark "happy music" made his numerous albums best-sellers in Germany and the United Kingdom, with 65 of his albums reaching the charts in the UK alone.^[2] His composition "Happy Heart" became an international success in interpretations by Andy Williams and Petula Clark.

Last is reported to have sold an estimated &#;million records worldwide in his lifetime^[3] of which 80&#;million were sold by ^[4] and won numerous awards including gold and 14 platinum discs in Germany, the International MIDEM Prize at MIDEM in ,^[5] and West Germany's highest civilian award, the Bundesverdienstkreuz.^[6] His album This Is James Last remained a UK best-seller for 48 weeks, and his song "Games That Lovers Play" has been covered over a hundred times.^[5] Last undertook his final tour months before his death at age 86, upon discovering in September that an illness had worsened.

His final UK performance was his 90th at London's Royal Albert Hall,^[2] more than any other performer except Eric Clapton.^[1]

Last's trademark sound employed big band arrangements of well-known tunes with a jaunty dance beat, often heavy on bass and brass.^[7] Despite at times being derided by critics and purists as the "king of elevator music"^[1] or "acoustic porridge",^[3] his style and music were popular in numerous countries and cultures, including Japan, South Korea, the former Soviet Union, the US and UK, and his native Germany,^[8] where it became "the archetypal soundtrack of any German cellar bar party",^[4] and made him the "most commercially successful bandleader" of the second half of the 20th century.^[1]

Early life

Last was born to Louis and Martha Last in Bremen, Germany.^[9] He was the younger brother of Robert Last and Werner Last (aka Kai Warner).

His father worked for the public utility of the city of Bremen and Last grew up in the suburb of Sebaldsbrück. He began studying the piano at age 10, although he could play simple tunes such as the folk song "Hänschen klein" when he was 9.

James last Search Search Search. By the time of his farewell tour in the spring of , Last was reported to have sold well over million albums. He fell victim to a number of investment fraudsters, starting with his tax advisor. Last's album, Non Stop Dancing , was a recording of brief renditions of popular songs, all tied together by an insistent dance beat and crowd noises.

His first music teacher felt he lacked any musical talent. Last started playing more actively with his second tutor and switched to the double bass as a teenager. His home city of Bremen was bombed heavily during World War II, and he ran messages to air defence command posts during the raids. He entered the Bückeburg Military Music School of the German Wehrmacht at the age of 14 and learned to play bass, piano and tuba.^[10]

After the end of the war, he joined Hans Günther Oesterreich's Radio Bremen Dance Orchestra.

In he became the leader of the Last-Becker Ensemble, which performed for seven years. He was voted as the best bassist in the country in a German jazz poll for , and ^[1] When the Last-Becker Ensemble disbanded, he became the in-house arranger for Polydor Records, as well as a number of European radio stations. During the next decade he helped arrange hits for artists such as Helmut Zacharias, Freddy Quinn, Lolita, Alfred Hause and Caterina Valente.^{[citation needed]}

Work

Last first released albums in the U.S.

under the titles The American Patrol on Warner Bros. Records around He also released a series of nine albums in a series called Classics Up To Date which served up arrangements of classical melodies with strings, rhythm and wordless chorus from the mids until the early s. Last's album, Non Stop Dancing, was a recording of brief renditions of popular songs, all tied together by an insistent dance beat and crowd noises.

Last was somewhat more successful on the singles charts. His single "Mornings at Seven" became a familiar tune in Britain after the BBC used it as the theme music for an ice skating program. COM Article Talk.

It was a hit and helped make him a major European star. Over the next four decades, Last released over records, including several more volumes of Non Stop Dancing. On these records, he varied his formula by adding different songs from different countries and genres, as well as guest performers like Richard Clayderman and Astrud Gilberto.

He also had his own successful television series throughout the s with guests including ABBA and Lynsey de Paul which was screened across Europe. Last's trademark sound employed big band arrangements of well-known tunes with a jaunty dance beat, often heavy on bass and brass.^[7]

Though his concerts and albums were consistently successful, especially in the UK, where he had 52 hit albums between and , which made him second only to Elvis Presley in charting records,^[11] he had relatively few hit singles.

In the UK, his only chart singles were "The Seduction", a cover version of the theme from American Gigolo () composed by Giorgio Moroder, and "Biscaya" from the album Biscaya. His single "Mornings at Seven" became a familiar tune in Britain after the BBC used it as the theme music for an ice skating program.^[12][13] Figures for record sales vary widely, between &#;million at that time by ^[14] and &#;million records worldwide in his lifetime.^[3]

In the US, where "The Seduction" became a Top 40 hit, peaking at No.

28 on the Billboard Hot and No. 22 on the Adult Contemporary chart in May Last was somewhat more successful on the singles charts. In , his song "Einsamer Hirte" (The Lonely Shepherd) which features the pan flute of Gheorghe Zamfir appeared on the soundtrack of the Quentin Tarantino movie Kill Bill Volume 1.

He won numerous popular and professional awards, including Billboard magazine's Star of the Year trophy in , and was honoured for lifetime achievement with the German ECHO prize in His song "Music from Across the Way" (recorded by Andy Williams in ) is a melody with a classical feeling and was a worldwide hit; it was the only other Last single apart from "The Seduction" to reach the U.S.

Hot , where it peaked at No. 84 (and No. 18 on the Adult Contemporary chart) in late (His only other U.S. chart single was a double-sided entry featuring remakes of the Village Stompers' "Washington Square" and Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary", which reached No. 22 on the Adult Contemporary chart in early ).

Last was awarded the Carl Alan Award by Princess Margaret for being the leader of the most popular dance band of In Canada, he had three hits on the RPM Top Singles charts ("El Cóndor Pasa" at No. 46, "Music from Across the Way" at No. 28, "The Seduction" at No. 32) and four on the Adult Contemporary/MOR charts ("Music from" at No.

2, "Heart of Gold" at No. 17, "The Seduction" at No. 36, "Reach for a Star" at No. 20).

Clear: It was a hit and helped make him a major European star. Lorenzo Molajoli. In other projects. Shiko Aranov.

Songs composed by Last which achieved success in the US include "Happy Heart" and "Music from Across the Way", both recorded by Andy Williams, "Games That Lovers Play", recorded by Eddie Fisher, and "Fool", recorded by Elvis Presley. By the time of his farewell tour in the spring of , Last was reported to have sold well over million albums.^[11]

His signature piece was "Orange Blossom Special".

He played this at almost every concert. He encouraged the band to have fun with it and sometimes the band members would go into the audience and make a conga line with duck head umbrellas.

After the disbandment of the Becker-Last Ensemble, he became the in-house arranger for Polydor Records, as well as for a number of European radio stations. Date of Birth: He also released a series of nine albums in a series called Classics Up To Date which served up arrangements of classical melodies with strings, rhythm and wordless chorus from the mids until the early s. He fell victim to a number of investment fraudsters, starting with his tax advisor.

It was always a popular piece at his concerts.

In February , after almost 50 years on tour, James Last announced that he was finally bidding adieu to the stage. The last concert of his Non Stop Music James Last in Concert farewell tour took place in Lanxess Arena in Cologne on 26 April ^[15]

Personal life

Last married his first wife, Waltraud, in ; they had two children.^[16] After 42 years of marriage, Waltraud died in ^[17] Two years later, Last married Christine Grundner from Bavaria.^[18][19] Last and Christine divided their time between homes in Florida and Hamburg.^[20]

Financial difficulties

Despite being the "most commercially successful bandleader" of the second half of the 20th century,^[1] Last's extravagant spending and "incompetent" financial advice led him at one stage to the "brink of ruin." James Last did not make as big a fortune as his immense record sales would suggest.

He fell victim to a number of investment fraudsters, starting with his tax advisor. He bought oil rigs, wineries and cotton fields in the US as depreciation assets. When he wanted to visit his wineries in , it turned out that none of the projects existed. As a result, the tax breaks ceased and there were large additional claims. Last was barely prevented from selling his publishing rights.

He took out a loan from the Hamburger Sparkasse and was not financially debt-free again until shortly before his 70th birthday.^[4]

Illness, final tour and death

In September Last learned that a "life threatening" illness had worsened (the exact details were never disclosed), and in early he announced his retirement from touring would take place following a final "goodbye tour", which commenced in Germany and ended in London.^[21] Last died less than three months later, on 9 June in Florida at the age of ^[22][23]

Writing in The Independent, Spencer Leigh suggested that Last's Non-Stop Dancing albums "paved the way for disco and dance mixes".

Asked if he minded being labelled the "King of Corn", Last reportedly replied "No, because it is true."^[7]

Awards

List of awards:^[5]

Discography

Productions of James Last: (As Hans Last, Orlando and James Last)

Studio albums

Live albums

• Freddy Live () (live concert with Freddy Quinn)
• Live in Copenhagen () (bootleg based on radio broadcast, not official release)
• James Last Live () (2 LP-album)
• Live in Hannover () (bootleg based on radio broadcast, not official release)
• Live in London () (2 LP-album)
• Live in London () (bootleg based on radio broadcast, not official release)
• Live in Tokyo () (bootleg based on radio broadcast, not official release)
• The Berlin-Concert ’87 ()
• Live at the Royal Albert Hall () (bootleg based on radio broadcast, not official release)
• The Best of Live on Tour ()
• Concerts ()
• Gentleman of Music ()
• A World of Music ()
• Live in Europe ()
• Live at the Royal Albert Hall (released as 1 DVD-edition and 2 CD-edition) ()
• Music is My World () (first three tracks only; the rest is a compilation of old studio recordings)

Soundtracks

Singles (selection)

Compilation albums (selection)

• Fanfare ()
• Does His Thing (Happy Music) ()
• El Condor Pasa ()
• In Concert 2 ()
• Super Non-Stop Dancing ()
• Olé ()
• Stereo Spectacular ()
• Il Y A Toujours Du Soleil (Golden Hearts) (James Last & Richard Clayderman) ()
• Country Cousins ()
• Best of Kapt'n James ()
• Classics Up to Date 8 ()
• Sólo Éxitos (Polydor Venezuela )
• Die schönsten TV- und Filmmelodien ()
• In Los Angeles (Well Kept Secret ) ()
• Eighty Not Out (released as a 3-CD edition) ()
• Gold Top (Brunswick 5CD DE )
• The Complete Collection (Universal 8CD IT )
• Glanzlichter (Koch Universal DE )
• Classic Christmas (Spectrum Music SPEC UK )
• Christmas With Romance (Universal IT )
• Voodoo-Party / Well Kept Secret (Vocalion 2on1 CDSML UK )
• My Personal Favourites (Polydor 2CD DE )
• Happy Summer Night / Rock Me Gently (Vocalion 2on1 CDLK UK )
• World Hits / Hair (Vocalion 2CD CDSML UK )
• Beachparty (Polydor 4CD DE )
• Dancing à gogo (Polydor 4CD DE )
• Silver Collection (RISA / Force10Music / Universal BUDCD ( –0) ZA )
• Ich find' Schlager toll (Polydor 4 DE )

Chart positions

Albums

Singles

See also

References

External links