Writers: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards
Producer: Andrew Loog Oldham
Recorded: January/February 1965 at RCA Studios in Hollywood, California
Released: March 1965
| Players: | Mick Jagger — vocals Keith Richards — guitar, vocals Brian Jones — guitar, vocals Bill Wyman — bass Charlie Watts — drums Ian Stewart — organ |
| Album: | Out Of Our Heads (London, 1965) |
“The Last Time” was the first single A-side written for the Rolling Stones by frontman Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards.
In his memoir Stone Alone, bassist Bill Wyman recalled that Jagger and Richards wrote the song at their flat in the Hampstead section of London: “They thought the title was weak and tried for a long period to improve on it but finally decided to go with their first idea.”
“The Last Time” was also one of the first songs the Stones recorded at RCA Studios in Hollywood, California.
RCA Studios was a favorite recording locale for the Stones in 1965 and 1966, with three separate visits that yielded classic tracks including “Paint It, Black,” “Let's Spend The Night Together,” “(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction,” “Get Off My Cloud,” and “Mother's Little Helper.”
Wyman remembered the scene at RCA Studios and in Los Angeles at that time — “We loved this studio because it was custom-built: with no windows, we neither knew nor cared whether it was night or day but just kept playing on. As I arrived, two girls we had met in Phoenix were hanging around outside. I got them into the studio quietly and told them to strip and walk in on the boys to shock them, which they did. (Producer-manager) Andrew (Loog Oldham) grabbed one and pulled her into the control room for 'action' in front of everyone.”
Producers Phil Spector and Jack Nitzsche provided unacknowledged (at the time) “production assistance” to the Stones at RCA.
The Stones performed “The Last Time” on The Ed Sullivan Show on May 2nd, 1965.
“Play With Fire” was the B-side of “The Last Time.”
The Out Of Our Heads album was the group's first Number One album in the U.S., and it spent three weeks at the top of the chart.