Unable to stop, the singer swerves to the right to avoid it, loses control, and crashes violently, knocking his girlfriend and himself unconscious.
When he cradles his girlfriend lovingly in his arms, she regains partial consciousness, smiles, and asks the singer to "hold me, darling, for a little while."
In the song's chorus, the singer vows to be a good person so that he may reunite with his love when he dies, believing she has made it into Heaven.
Wayne Cochran was initially inspired to write "Last Kiss" after having lived near a dangerous stretch of two-lane rural highway where several collisions occurred yearly.
The Boblo disc credited "Last Kiss" to Macon Music, while the King record cited Boblo-BMI.
Baby" (Boblo 101-A), produced by Bobby Smith, offering another take on the song, with different lyrics, a faster tempo, and different instrumentation.
[5] Billboard gave four stars to the B-side, "Funny Feeling", which was written by Joe Carpenter and Milt "Pete" Skelton.
"Last Kiss" was recorded in August 1964 by the Cavaliers of San Angelo, Texas, with J. Frank Wilson as singer.
[6] Released on September 5, 1964, Josie 923 spent 15 weeks on the charts, reaching number two on November 7, right behind "Baby Love" by The Supremes.
[8] The Last Kiss album cover shows Wilson kneeling over a young woman portraying the dying girl.
Supposedly, first printings of the cover showed blood trickling down the girl's face, but it was air-brushed out by the record company for fear that alienating parents would limit sales of the album.
"Last Kiss" was also covered by American rock band Pearl Jam for the 1999 charity album No Boundaries: A Benefit for the Kosovar Refugees.
The idea to cover "Last Kiss" came about after vocalist Eddie Vedder found an old record of the song at the Fremont Antique Mall in Seattle, Washington.
The band eventually recorded the song at a soundcheck at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., and released it as a 1998 fan club Christmas single.
"[28] In 1998, the cover of "Last Kiss" began to be played by radio stations and was ultimately put into heavy rotation across the US.
In Australasia, "Last Kiss" peaked atop the Australian ARIA Singles Chart for seven weeks and became a top-20 success in New Zealand.
Christopher John Farley of Time said, "It's a spare, morose song with Vedder's voice warbling lovelorn over a straight-ahead drum beat.
The most popular version was recorded in 1965 by Mexican singer Polo (ex-member of Los Apson) with the title of "El Último Beso" in Spanish, translated by Mexican TV director and tennis teacher Omero Gonzalez, this Spanish version has been covered by several bands, notably by singer Alci Acosta who had a hit in 1967 in Colombia, as well as José "Joseíto" Martínez in 1990, the song with which he won a Congo de Oro in the Barranquilla Carnival.