I have two tables with linked data. There are activity updates against individual customers (customer\_id). I want to return the most recent activity per customer;

**contact**;
customer\_id (auto\_increment)
last\_name 
first\_name  

phone\_work 

**activity**;
activity\_id (auto\_increment)
data\_item\_id
entered\_by
date\_created
notes

I can return the entire set of activities;

SELECT last\_name, first\_name, date\_created, notes, FROM contact JOIN activity ON contact.customer\_id=activity.data\_item\_id;

..but I only want the most recent activity per customer\_name. If I use unique, it seems to return the first activity per customer\_name and not the most recent. I'm sure it's extrememly simple but I've not found it yet. Thoughts?