Last Kiss

Living about fifteen miles away in an old shack for which he was paying $20 a month rent was Wayne Cochran, a white R&B singer and composer. Wayne saw accident after accident on the busy stretch of highway on which he lived. He had written a song about all the accidents and left it unfinished, until he heard about the tragedy in Barnesville. He completed the song and dedicated it to the memory of Jeanette Clark. He called it Last Kiss. 

Wayne sang the song locally and, when people liked it, he recorded it for the small Gala Records label. It caught on in Georgia, and Wayne tried to promote sales of the record the only way he knew how: he loaded a bunch of 45's in the trunk of his car and went around selling them. It was not veryeffective. He later recorded the song for another record label, but the owner wouldn't promote it. 

A recording executive in Fort Worth, Texas, Major Bill Smith [who had produced Bruce Channel's Hey! Baby and Paul and Paula's Hey Paula] heard it. He liked the song. Major Bill Smith had a group in Fort Worth who were with his Josie label. This group, called the Cavaliers, had formed in San Angelo, Texas and consisted of Phil Trunzo, Bobby Woods, Jerry Graham, and George Croyle. Major Bill paired them with a twenty-two-year-old singer from Lufkin, Texas named John Frank Wilson. The record was released as Last Kiss, by J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers, on the Josie label. It entered the charts in September, 1964 and was a huge success. 

J. Frank Wilson was born in 1941 in Lufkin, Texas and had worked as a hospital orderly. He was in a terrible automobile accident himself in Ohio
some time after Last Kiss became a hit. Wilson died in Lufkin in 1991. Major Bill Smith also died in the 90's. Wayne Cochran, who performed on Jackie Gleason's television show in Miami in the 60's, is now a preacher. 

Last Kiss went as high as number two on the charts in 1964.