I found out in mid '82 that Rhino was going to put together a Best of Louie Louie album. We were shopping the "red demo" (the bulk of this album) at the time, and I was beginning to realize that a magic record deal was not necessarily on the horizon, and that we still had not released anything new since '79, with the sole exception of Bomp's Fade to Black EP.

I was inspired to do to "Louie Louie" what I'd done to "Be Bop a Lula" - i.e. turn it into a minor key, gloomy, gothic mess. We recorded it right away, and played it for Rhino's Harold Bronson, who was delighted. We were in.

To the inevitable question: "Well, why didn't Rhino do a Last album?" I can only respond with: they knew better.

—Joe Nolte