Last Time I Saw Him (song)

"Last Time I Saw Him" is a 1973 single release by Diana Ross, being a composition by Michael Masser and lyricist Pam Sawyer: the track was produced by Masser and released in December 1973 at the same time as Ross' Last Time I Saw Him album.

"Last Time I Saw Him"
Single by Diana Ross
from the album Last Time I Saw Him
B-side	"Save the Children"
Released	December 6, 1973
Recorded	1973
Genre	Soul, Country western
Length	2:49 (7" single/album)
Label	Motown
Songwriter(s)	Michael Masser, Pam Sawyer
Producer(s)	Michael Masser
Diana Ross singles chronology
"You Are Everything" (1974) "Last Time I Saw Him" (1973) "Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart)" (1974)

Original version

Michael Masser had also composed and produced the precedent solo Diana Ross single "Touch Me in the Morning", a dreamy ballad which had hit #1, but "Last Time I Saw Him" took a drastically different musical direction: AMG would note that on the "arguably campy" last-named track, arrangers Michael Omartian and Gene Page "throw in everything but the proverbial kitchen sink with a score that is all over the musical map from Dixieland-band jazz to banjo-pickin' and even an orchestrated string section",[1] while Billboard would describe "Last Time I Saw Him" as "a light romp in the Tony Orlando and Dawn style."[2]

The song's narrator recalls how she saw her "honey" off on a Greyhound bus having given the man a large amount of money to establish future living arrangements for the two of them; six months have since passed with no word and the narrator resultantly announces her intention to go in search of her errant swain in the naive belief he has been stranded by some ill-fortune from which she can retrieve him.

Ross scored her seventh Top 40 hit with "Last Time I Saw Him", which peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1974, and a Top 20 R&B hit, where it peaked at 16. The track had its greatest impact in the easy listening market, where it was number 1 for three weeks on the Billboard Easy Listening chart. "Last Time I Saw Him" was named the biggest Easy Listening Hit of 1974.[3]

Ross also charted with "Last Time I Saw Him" in Australia at number 18 and in the UK at 35.

Chart performance

Weekly charts Chart (1973–74) Peak position Australia[4] 18 Canada Top Singles (RPM)[5] 8 Canada Adult Contemporary (RPM)[6] 50 New Zealand (Listener)[7] 18 UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[8] 35 US Billboard Hot 100[9] 14 US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (Billboard)[10] 15 US Adult Contemporary (Billboard)[11] 1 US Cash Box Top 100[12] 9

Year-end charts Chart (1974) Rank Australia[4] 156 Canada[13] 86 US (Joel Whitburn's Pop Annual)[14] 129

Dottie West version

"Last Time I Saw Him"
Single by Dottie West
from the album House of Love
B-side	"Everybody Bring a Song"
Released	February 1974
Recorded	January 1974
Genre	Country
Length	3:00
Label	RCA Victor
Songwriter(s)	Michael Masser, Pam Sawyer
Producer(s)	Billy Davis
Dottie West singles chronology
"Country Sunshine" (1973) "Last Time I Saw Him" (1974) "House of Love" (1974)

Dottie West expediently covered "Last Time I Saw Him" for the C&W market in the January 1974 recording sessions at the RCA Victor Studio in Nashville which resulted in the House of Love album produced by Billy Taylor. West's "Last Time I Saw Him" reached #8 on the C&W chart in Billboard in February 1974 marking the first time West had scored back-to-back C&W Top Ten hits, her precedent single having been her career record "Country Sunshine"; this success was followed by a progressive drop in West's hitmaking power with her longtime label RCA Victor eventually dropping her in 1976. Although West's subsequent signing with United Artists boosted her chart profile, her first C&W Top Ten hit since "Last Time I Saw Him" did not occur until 1980 when "A Lesson in Leavin'" afforded West her first #1 solo hit (four Dottie West/Kenny Rogers duets had reached the Top Ten in 1978-79 including #1 hits "Every Time Two Fools Collide" and "All I Ever Need Is You").[15]

Charts

Chart (1974)	Peak position
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)[16]	8

Other versions

Michele Lee recorded "Last Time I Saw Him" for the soundtrack album of the 1995 TV-biopic Big Dreams and Broken Hearts: The Dottie West Story in which Lee portrayed West. The song has also been recorded by Elke Best (de) (as "Du bist der Größte"), Lea Laven (as "Jää Vielä Aamuun") and Lill-Babs (as "Du alter Gauner").

See also

• List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1974 (U.S.)

References

1. Lindsay Planer (1973-12-06). "Last Time I Saw Him - Diana Ross | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 2016-10-09.
2. Billboard Vol. 85 No. 51 (December 22, 1973), p.56.
3. Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001. Record Research. p. 210.
4. Steffen Hung. "Forum - 1970 (ARIA Charts: Special Occasion Charts)". Australian-charts.com. Archived from the original on 2016-06-02. Retrieved 2016-10-09.
5. "Top RPM Singles: Issue 4988." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
6. "Top RPM Adult Contemporary: Issue 4996." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
7. Flavour of New Zealand, 6 April 1974
8. "Diana Ross: Artist Chart History". Official Charts Company. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
9. "Diana Ross Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
10. "Diana Ross Chart History (Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
11. "Diana Ross Chart History (Adult Contemporary)". Billboard. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
12. "Top 100 1974-03-09". Cashbox Magazine. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
13. "Image : RPM Weekly - Library and Archives Canada". Bac-lac.gc.ca. Retrieved 2016-10-09.
14. Whitburn, Joel (1999). Pop Annual. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc. ISBN 0-89820-142-X.
15. Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition. Record Research. p. 379.
16. "Dottie West Chart History (Hot Country Songs)". Billboard.