詹姆斯·拉斯特轻音乐团是与法国保罗·莫里亚、意大利曼托瓦尼乐团齐名的世界三大轻音乐团之一。创建人詹姆斯·拉斯特生于1929年，学于不莱梅音乐学院，曾从事低音提琴演奏。他1955年在德国汉堡创办乐队专门演奏轻音乐乐曲，擅长将古典乐曲改编为现代作品，既不失高雅，又通俗宜听。乐队同时也演奏民间音乐、电影音乐和流行音乐。除演奏会外，作为前宝丽金(Polygram)公司的轻音乐队之一，已发行了五、六十张(盒)唱片(磁带)，曲目种类包罗万象，加之人声伴唱，很受欢迎。1968 年被德国评为最佳通俗乐队。
James Last is a German big band leader with a large fan base in Europe, although he has never had a comparable following in the United States. Last's trademark is arranging pop hits in a big-band style; his series of "party albums" is equally well-known. Over the course of his career, he has sold well over 50 million albums.
Last learned how to play piano as child, switching to bass as a teenager. He joined Hans-Gunther Oesterreich's Radio Bremen Dance Orchestra in 1946, when he was 17 years old. In 1948, he became the leader of the Becker-Last Ensemble, which performed for seven years. During that time, he was voted as the best bassist in the country by a German jazz poll for three consecutive years, from 1950-1952. After the disbandment of the Becker-Last Ensemble, he became the in-house arranger for Polydor Records, as well as for a number of European radio stations. For the next decade, he helped arrange hits for artists like Helmut Zacharias and Caterina Valente.
Last released his first album, Non-Stop Dancing, in 1965. The record of brief renditions of popular songs, all tied together by an insistent dance beat and joyous crowd noises. It was a hit and helped make him a major European star. Over the next two decades, Last released over 50 records, including several more volumes of Non-Stop Dancing. On these records, he varied his formula by adding different songs from different countries and genres, as well as guest performers like Richard Clayderman and Astrud Gilberto.
Though his concerts and albums were consistently successful -- especially in England, where he had 52 hit albums between 1967-1986, which made him second to Elvis Presley in terms of number of charting records -- he only had one hit single with "The Seduction," the theme from American Gigolo (1980).