"Last Night on Earth" was first written during the Zooropa sessions as documented by rock DJ and journalist BP Fallon in his book U2 Faraway So Close.

[4] Assuming they had plenty of time to finish recording the songs for the album, the band told manager Paul McGuinness to go ahead and book their PopMart Tour, which was to begin in April 1997.

The band immediately regretted their decision to let McGuinness book the tour, and had to rush their recording sessions to release the album in time.

Live performances typically lasted longer than the length of the song on the album, as they featured several additions that were not present in the studio recording.

Before the first verse, Bono would start the song by saying something similar to the following: I went looking...I went looking for spirit... Found alcoholI went looking for soul... And I bought some styleI wanted to meet God...

The giant vidi-walls behind the band would display a cartoon during "Last Night on Earth" that depicted the characters being bombarded with stimulants at malls and shops and also made reference to the growing gun issue in the United States.

The video PopMart: Live from Mexico City features "Last Night on Earth", and the same performance was later released as an audio track on the "Elevation" single in 2001.

The production of a portion of the video required the closure of Interstate 670, a major downtown Kansas City freeway, as well as several local streets.