538 The Mar-Keys “Last Night” 1961

The band, originally called the Royal Spades, was formed by a group of students at Messick High School in Memphis, Tennessee. After their hit, “Last Night,” debuted, the name was changed to Mar-Keys, a modification of “Marquis” when a band member pointed out that “People around here don’t read French.” The record became the basis for “what became known as the Stax sound” (Rob Bowman, Soulsville, U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records, 1997).

The Mar-Keys “Last Night”