James Last (also known as "
Hansi", born
Hans Last; 17 April 1929 – 9 June 2015)
[1] was a
German composer and
big band leader. Initially a
jazz bassist (Last won the award for "best bassist in Germany in each of the years 1950 - 1952
[1]), his trademark "happy music" made his numerous albums best-sellers in Germany and the
United Kingdom, with 65 of his albums reaching the charts in the UK alone.
[2][2] His composition "
Happy Heart" became an international success in interpretations by
Andy Williams and
Petula Clark.
Last's trademark sound employed big band arrangements of well-known tunes with a jaunty dance beat, often heavy on bass and brass.
[10] Despite at times being derided by critics and
purists as the "king of
elevator music"
[1] or "acoustic
porridge",
[4] his style and music was popular in numerous countries and cultures, including Japan, the former
Soviet Union, the USA and UK, and his native Germany,
[11] where it became "the archetypal soundtrack of any German cellar bar party",
[6] and made him the "most commercially successful bandleader" of the second half of the 20th century.
[1]
