Songfacts®:

• This heartbreaking ballad details Brian Wilson's sadness about the Beach Boys' dissolution after Mike Love pulled the plug on the group's 2012 reunion tour. "It started out being about lost love," co-producer Joe Thomas told Rolling Stone. "But after the tour fell apart it became more about a missed opportunity for Brian and the guys to ride into the sunset together."
• Session musician and producer Don Was played bass on the track, an experience that greatly moved him. "There's something about Brian signing off with it, saying, 'This is it, this is my last song.' It's really intense," he said. "If 'Last Song' turned out to be his last song, can you imagine? Wow. That'd be some coda."
• Two versions were recorded - originally it was done with a haunting vocal by Lana Del Rey, but when Wilson asked the songstress to come back in to do more work, she had to decline due to scheduling issues. The version that appears on No Pier Pressure is with Wilson's lead vocals.
• When Brian Wilson started singing, "If there was just another chance for me to sing to you… There's never enough time for the ones that you love," both Don Was and drummer Jim Keltner started crying. "We realized we were playing his coda," Was explained to Mojo magazine.