Soul singer Ben E King, of Stand By Me fame has died.

Coincidentally the Record Press author has always associated Ben E King’ song Stand By Me, with Percy Sledge’s When A Man Loves A Woman – Percy Sledge of course died a couple of weeks ago. There’s something rather fitting and comforting in that fact. Part of the reason for this close association between the two tunes is that both were used in TV commercial soundtracks in the mid-1980s and ultimately both singers were most famous for these two anthems.

Ben E King started his career in the late 1950s with The Drifters, singing on hits including There Goes My Baby and Save The Last Dance For Me – he co-wrote and sang on the band’s single There Goes My Baby, which reached No2 in the US in 1959. After going solo, he hit the US top five with Stand By Me in 1961. It had a renaissance in 1987 when it reached No1 in the UK, following its use in the film of the same name and a TV commercial, as already mentioned.

In 1999, the BMI announced that the song Stand By Me, written by King with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, was the fourth most-played track of the 20th Century on US radio and TV. Earlier this year, the US Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry, declaring that “it was King’s incandescent vocal that made it a classic”. Ben E King’s other hits included Spanish Harlem, Amor, Don’t Play That Song (You Lied) and Supernatural Thing – Part I.  Ben E King had six hits in the US Billboard top 40 between 1961 and 1975.Stand By Me, Spanish Harlem and There Goes My Baby were all named in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll and were all given a Grammy Hall of Fame Award.

Which do you prefer – Ben E King’s Stand By Me or Percy Sledge’s When A Man Loves A Woman? Let us know in the Reply Box below.

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