Stand By Me Singer King – It’s been just over a month since the US Library of Congress announced the addition of Ben King’s Stand By Me to the National Recording Registry. “I think this is one of the greatest moments of my life,” King told CBS News at the time. That’s no small statement for a man who died Friday at the age of 76, having contributed to one of the most powerful souls ever. and R&B songs of all time.
But it is logical that this honor will be the pinnacle, the pinnacle of an extraordinary life. The National Register preserves songs that are “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant,” and it’s hard to think of a more worthy title than “Stand By Me.” Since its release in 1961, it has swept across culture, inspiring covers from people as diverse as John Lennon, Muhammad Ali, and author Stephen King (who also wrote the story that inspired the song’s title hit). In all, more than 400 artists have recorded versions of “Stand by Me,” and it has charted several times, including twice — decades apart — for King’s original.
Stand By Me Singer King
The historical and aesthetic significance of the song should not be underestimated. Its bassline, common among doo-wop artists of the 1950s, became so associated with the song that the chord changes are sometimes called “Stand by Me”. The lyric acts as a testament to friendship, romance, or broader social solidarity; accordingly, he sounded calls for political progress from America to Thailand. Its elemental power comes from the way it transforms human relationships into something cosmic, apocalyptic, essential. “When the sky we look upon crumbles and falls, and the mountains fall into the sea,” the words testify, “all is well as long as you “stand with me.” This epic sense of volume has its roots in timeless love songs as well as gospel, and the writers said they were inspired by the worship song “Lord Stand by Me.” In turn, the royal melody entered many church services.
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King was originally going to write the song for his band The Drifters, but they dropped it. Legendary producers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller helped the 23-year-old singer finalize the music and lyrics to release “Stand By Me” as a solo track. He had already sung true classics with the Drifters, such as “There Goes My Baby,” “Save the Last Dance for Me,” and “This Magic Moment,” and King would have more Billboard Hot 20. 100 hits between 1961 and 1975. He also continued to record and perform until a very late age. But it was “Stand By Me” that was most associated with his name, and King never seemed to have a problem with that. After the song was commissioned by the Library of Congress, he thought, “To think that one day my children’s children will look at this and say
, that’s the feeling.” What a small group of people might finally know that feeling. Ben E. King, the smooth, soulful baritone who led the Drifters on “There Goes My Baby,” “Save the Last Dance for Me” and other late-night hits ’50s and early ’60s, and as a solo artist he recorded the classic singles “Spanish Harlem” and “Stand by Me,” died Thursday in Hackensack, N.J. He was 76.
His lawyer, Judy Tint, said Mr. King, who lived in Teaneck, New Jersey, died at Hackensack University Medical Center after a brief illness, without providing further details.
Mr. King was working in his father’s Harlem diner in 1956 when local impresario Laver Patterson heard him singing and persuaded him to join the Five Crowns, a group he managed.
Ben E. King Dies:
Lightning struck when the group, then known as The Crowns, performed at the Apollo Theater with the original Drifters in 1958 and caught the attention of George Treadwell, who managed the Drifters and owned the name.
Mr. Treadwell feuded with his band, which entered a period of poverty after Clyde McPhatter, its lead singer, was drafted into the Army in late 1954. He fired the Drifters en masse and replaced them with Mr. King and three of his fellow singers.
Atlantic Records commissioned the songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller to produce the band’s records. The match proved to be inspired and spawned a streak of records that helped the Drifters reach the crossover. Mr. King’s soft yet passionate vocals had a big part to play in this.
“He was able to keep the gospel notes in his voice, but he also had an easy style that was engaging and exciting,” said Ken Emerson, author of Always Magic in the Air: The Bomp and Brilliance of the. Brill Building Era,” about the center of pop music writing in Manhattan.
Ben E. King Dies;
Released in 1959, “There Goes My Baby” reached #2 on the charts. Dance With Me, This Magic Moment, I Count the Tears, Lonely Winds and Save the Last Dance for Me, a #1 hit, followed.
Mr. King left the Drifters in 1960 and began a successful solo career. “Spanish Harlem,” a song Mr. Leiber co-wrote with Phil Spector, hit the Top 10 that year. “Stand by Me,” which Mr. King helped write, hit the Top 10 in 1961 and again in 1986 when it was used on the soundtrack to the Rob Reiner film of the same name.
”Because he recorded the works of so many great composers, his own works are often forgotten,” Mr. Emerson said. “But he wrote ‘There Goes My Baby’ and ‘Stand by Me’ was made with him.” He was also the lead author of Dance With Me.
Rolling Stone ranked “Stand by Me” at number 122 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 1999, BMI, the music licensing organization, announced that it was the fourth most recorded song of the 20th century, having been played more than seven million times on radio and television.
Ben E. King, Singer Of ‘stand By Me’ Dies At 76
Benjamin Earl Nelson was born on September 28, 1938 in Henderson, North Carolina. Mr. King grew up in Harlem, where his father moved the family when he was a child. Shortly after joining the Drifters, he adopted the surname King, which belonged to a beloved uncle.
He began singing in church choirs and in high school formed the doo-wop group Four B, which occasionally performed at the Apollo. “Singing was interesting to me,” he told the Classic Bands website in 1993. “I never imagined for a second that I’d be doing what I’m doing.”
Mr. King was just as sloppy when it came to describing his songs. In an interview with Bill Millar, author of The Drifters: The Rise and Fall of the Black Vocal Group (1971), he said, “I’d sit down with this old guitar that has all but three strings missing—nobody another could not play it, but I choose the tunes, and if I have something I will play it to whoever can write it.’
He sang with the Five Crowns when the group signed to R&B Records in 1958, a fledgling label run by songwriters Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman. As Crowns, the group recorded one song, “Kiss and Make Up”, before the company left. However, the relationship turned out to be fruitful. Pomus and Schumann co-wrote “This Magical Moment” with Mr. King, as well as “Save the Last Dance for Me.”
Video: ‘stand By Me’ Singer Ben E. King Dies At 76; Listen To The Song Again
Recording for Atco, a subsidiary of Atlantic, Mr. King had modest success in the 1960s with “Don’t Play That Song (You Lied), “I (Who Got Nothing), “Seven Letters” and “Tears, Tears, Tears” .” In 1968, he appeared on the single “Soul Meeting,” a minor hit for Soul Clan, an Atlantic supergroup that also included Solomon Burke and Joe Tex.
By the end of the decade, his career was on the decline. He returned with the 1975 funk hit “Supernatural Thing, Part 1” and in 1977 recorded an acclaimed album with the Average White Band, “Benny and Us”. He continued to release albums for Atlantic in the 1980s, recording “Let Me Live in Your Life” (1978), “Music Trance” (1980) and “Street Tough” (1981).
Mr. King later recorded for various independent labels and performed regularly in clubs and small concert halls in the United States and abroad.
He is survived by his mother, Jennie Nelson; his wife, Betty King; two daughters, Terris Cannon and Angela Matas; a son, Benjamin Jr.; four sisters, Joyce Powell, Gladys Johnson, Deborah Nelson and Stacey Nelson; three brothers, Jeffrey, Calvin and Billy; and six grandchildren.
Ben E. King, Soulful Singer Of ‘stand By Me,’ Dies At 76
“I still think my whole career was a fluke,” Mr. King told Classic Bands. “I didn’t follow it. Sometimes I feel like I’m cheating.” Ben E. King, the unforgettable Drifters lead singer and solo star whose plaintive baritone graced such pop and rhythm
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