The original opens with the sound of a screeching crash, then the drums start, and the bass picks up the beat; in contrast, the final version sounds like a cross between a pop arrangement and a reggae recording. Cochran loaded 45s in the trunk of his car, taking them along to gigs, to sell to fans, although it didn't help much. Over the course of the four versions, Cochran expanded his (and his co-writers') concept of the song, seeking a wider audience. Cochran would later go on to Miami, where he found moderate success playing nightclubs, with his band, CC Ryders. Jackie Gleason had Cochran on his television show several times. Cochran went into the ministry, in later years; he doesn't talk about his rock and roll years anymore. A long-running rumor held the song was based on an auto accident that killed 16-year-old Jeanette Clark, who was on a date with J.L. Hancock, also 16, in Barnesville, Georgia, on December 22, 1962. It was the Saturday before Christmas; the pair were with a group of friends, riding in a 1954 Chevrolet, driven by Hancock, in traffic. While traveling on U.S. Route 341, their car hit a tractor trailer carrying a load of logs in rural Barnesville, Georgia; Clark, Hancock and Wayne Cooper were killed. Two other teens in the car were seriously injured, but survived. However, this tragedy could not be the source of the song, as it had been recorded in the summer of 1961, more than a year earlier. Wayne Cochran lived on Georgia State Route 19/41, when he wrote "Last Kiss", only 15 miles away from the crash site, and was reportedly inspired to write the song after seeing many accidents on the highway. He re-recorded "Last Kiss", for release on King Records, in 1962, dedicating it to Clark, a fact which probably explains association of the song with the tragic crash. On September 18, 1961, "Billboard Music Week" printed a review of the song "Last Kiss" and gave it three stars but said nothing about the song itself in the review. None of the records charted, failing even to reach the "Bubbling Under" level, although the record was a local hit in Georgia, before it disappeared. Billboard had kind words for the B-Side, in its review of "Last Kiss" — giving four stars to the song called "Funny Feeling", on the flip side, written by Joe Carpenter and Milt "Pete" Skelton.