Last Kiss

This teenage tragedy song tells the story of a young couple who are out on a date when their car crashes. The driver - the guy - blacks out. When he comes to, he holds the girl in his arms and gives her one last kiss before she dies. He knows she's in heaven, so he's doing his best to be good so he can see her again someday. Sadly, it's based on a true story. On December 22, 1962, five teenagers were riding in a 1954 Chevy on Highway 341 in rural Barnesville, Georgia. The driver was J.L Hancock, a 16-year-old who was dating Jeanette Clark, also 16 and riding in the front seat next to him. Beside her was Wayne Cooper; two other passengers, Jewel Emerson and Ed Shockley, were in the back seat. It was foggy, and by the time Hancock saw a flatbed truck stalled on the highway, it was too late. He crashed into it, going under the truck and killing everyone in the front seat; the two passengers in the back survived with serious injuries.

This was written by Wayne Cochran, who lived on Route 1941 in Georgia, which was about 15 miles away from the crash. It was a busy road, and Cochran saw lots of accidents on it. He was working on a song based on all the crashes he saw, and was about halfway done with it when he heard about the wreck in Barnesville. There was an intense emotional response from the community after the tragedy, and Cochran used those feelings to finish the song, which he dedicated it to Jeanette Clark.

Cochran's version was a local hit in Georgia, which prompted a Texas record company to record it with J. Frank Wilson and release it nationally.