"The 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 Mar-Keys' first 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. Only a few of these are group originals; the rest of the cuts include covers of jazz tunes (
Cannonball Adderley's "Sack o' Woe"), popular standards ("Misty," "Ebb Tide"), classic R&B ("Sticks and Stones"), and even
Paul Anka's "Diana." ~ Richie Unterberger