Last Night! – THE MAR-KEYS***

Morning After/Diana/Alright OK You Win/Sticks & Stones/Misty/Night Before/About Noon/One Degree North/Sack O Woe/Hold It/Ebb Tide/Last Night

The Mar-Keys were a soul driven instrumental group from Memphis with prominent saxophone, trumpet and organ. The Last Night! title track was a US No. 3 hit single.

"Last Night was a great early-'60s instrumental rock hit, and an important one in helping to establish the basic sound of Stax soul music. It's the linchpin of the album, and despite the single's greatness, the LP is a mediocre, filler-filled effort that typifies the low standards of the full-length rock recording at the time. These are basic sax- and organ-driven soul-rock dance instrumentals, good for dancing to in the live shows The Mar-Keys were doing, but pretty boring one after another on record.”

“Last Night was the first ever Stax album, issued through Atlantic, to capitalize on the success of the title tune. The music is honking saxophone, organ, drums, everything for a good sixties party, in your club, on the beach or at home.”

“The Mar-Keys were the first house band at Stax. The emphasis of this group, was the horn. All of the tracks are great listening, and these are great musicians, but many of the tracks are just nice instrumentals, something new at the time. If you think you might like hear the roots of horns in pop and R & B, this is a great place to start. The million people who bought the hit single Last Night were on the right track.”

“Fantastic disc of early sixties instrumental soul music. Musicians include members of Booker T and The MGs and The Memphis Horns. The music is dated but well played and very cool.”

“The first album from The Mar-Keys, the hit title tune, Last Night went a long way towards establishing the Stax soul sound.”

“I am a big Mar-Keys fan, and love the solid stuff, but I have issues with some of this material. However, Last Night doesn't even require comment - a stone cold classic.”

“If you love your jazz-rock with a lot of lovely wheezy Hammond B3, buy this LP. If you're too young to remember the 60s you might like it anyway.”