J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers

The Cavaliers formed around 1955 with Sonley Roush becoming the manager of the group. He brought to them a song originally done by Wayne Cochran named Last Kiss. Wilson was located, and they recorded it in 1964. It became an instant hit. In 1964 the band played in the Knights of Columbus Hall for the San Angelo, Texas Central High School junior prom. The fee paid them by the class officers for a six-hour performance that year was $75, plus one fifth of bourbon — the drink, it was said, had become the sole sustenance of the drummer, Snake, an early incarnation both in stick style and appearance of Ginger Baker in his Cream manifestation. Last Kiss was then a current hit, and in the wide-open West Texas of the day, with lots of teens regularly driving full-bore by dark on the surrounding two-lane blacktop highways and listening after sunset to Oklahoma City mega-station KOMA, everyone at the prom thought they knew personally the crashed couple, or supposed they might be next.