James Last (born Hans Last on April 17, 1929 in Bremen) is a German composer and big band leader with a large fan base in Europe and world-wide. Last's trademark is arranging pop hits in a big-band style; his series of "party albums" is equally well-known. Over the course of his career, he has sold well over 100 million albums.[citation needed]

Last learned how to play piano as child, switching to bass as a teenager. He joined Hans-Gunther Oesterreich's Radio Bremen Dance Orchestra in 1946, when he was 17 years old. In 1948, he became the leader of the Becker-Last Ensemble, which performed for seven years. During that time, he was voted as the best bassist in the country by a German jazz poll for three consecutive years, from 1950-1952. After the disbandment of the Becker-Last Ensemble, he became the in-house arranger for Polydor Records, as well as for a number of European radio stations. For the next decade, he helped arrange hits for artists like Helmut Zacharias and Caterina Valente.

Last released his first album, Non-Stop Dancing, in 1965. The record of brief renditions of popular songs, all tied together by an insistent dance beat and joyous crowd noises. It was a hit and helped make him a major European star. Over the next four decades, Last has released over 190 records, including several more volumes of Non-Stop Dancing. On these records, he varies his formula by adding different songs from different countries and genres, as well as guest performers like Richard Clayderman and Astrud Gilberto.

Though his concerts and albums are consistently successful — especially in England, where he had 52 hit albums between 1967-1986, which made him second to Elvis Presley in terms of number of charting records[citation needed] — he has only had two hit singles with "The Seduction," the theme from American Gigolo (1980) and Biscaya from the album "Biscaya".

He has won numerous polls and prizes, for example Billboard magazine's "Star of the year" trophy in 1976, and has been honored for his lifework with the German ECHO prize in 1994.

Personally, he divides his time between Florida and Germany. He gives much credit to his wife and son, who helps with the music.

For more information on the musicians who have worked with James Last, see the entry for the James Last Orchestra

The James Last Orchestra is a German big-band orchestra with strings. The orchestra was established in 1964 as a studio orchestra, led by jazz musician Hans Last. The orchestra started touring in 1968, and has been extremely popular in Europe and all over the world.

The line-up as seen in the 1968 picture is as follows:

Back row: Willy Surmann, Hermann Plato, Manfred Grossman, Detlef Surmann.

Front row: Günter Platzek, Heinz Habermann, Werner Gutterer, Emil Wurster, Heinz Schulze, Bernd Steffanowski, Robert Last, Fiete Wacker, Karl-Hermann Lüer, Paul Kubatsch and Manfred Moch.

The rhythm section (piano/organ: Günter Platzek, sax/accordion: Jo Ment, drums: Robert Last, bass: Hans Last) sometimes recorded as a combo.

Around 1970 the rhythm section was reorganized as a rock group (lead guitar: Helmuth Franke, rhythm guitar: Peter Hesslein, drums: Barry Roy Reeves, bass: Benny Bendorf, Christian Lembrecht and later Herbert Bornholdt: percussion). Bornholdt and Hesslein were members of the German progressive rock band Lucifer's Friend (another member, Peter Hecht, played with Last for a few years in the late 1970s), and Franke was a member of the pop-rock band Wonderland, whose recordings were produced by Last.

Last initially used many of the musicians who, like himself, were based in Hamburg and were regularly employed by the NDR (Norddeutsche Rundfunk, or North German Radio) big band. Over time, many of the NDR musicians could not always get time off to tour with the Last band, so Last used this chance to make the orchestra more international. Some of the top musicians who have played in the James Last orchestra include Canadian violinist Trudean Conrad, English drummer Terry Jenkins, Belgian trombonist Georges Delagaye, Swedish trumpeter Leif Uvemark and a number of American trumpeters including Bob Lanese, Rick Kiefer and brothers Chuck Findley and Bob Findley. Another trumpeter, Derek Watkins from England, recorded with the Beatles, playing on Strawberry Fields Forever and Revolution 1. Some musicians are family: father-and-son violinists Dmiter Pintev and Stefan Pintev, and husband and wife Bob Coassins (trumpet, USA) and Anne-Louise Comerford (viola, Australia). All in all, nearly 20 different countries are represented in the membership of the orchestra.

James Last has taken much influence from the world of rock and pop when arranging music for his orchestra. A typical example is his version of Here Comes The Sun from the album Beachparty 2 which is influenced by the version sung by Richie Havens in the film Woodstock. Last's epic version of Greensleeves is a combination of the styles of Iron Butterfly and Blood, Sweat & Tears, two bands that he publicly declared his favourites in the late 60s. His studio recordings do not always capture the energy unleashed at his live concerts where a combination of skillful arranging and talented musicians give some surprising performances. His versions of Nature Boy featuring Chuck Findley and MacArthur Park featuring Derek Watkins are two examples.