Singer of ‘Stand By Me’ dies at 76
NEW YORK, May 2, (Agencies): Ben E. King, the soul singer whose Gospel-influenced “Stand By Me” became one of the most broadcast songs of the 20th century, has died at 76, his spokesman said Friday.
King, who lived in New Jersey, died of natural causes on Thursday, spokesman Phil Brown told AFP.
R&B singer and collaborator Gary US Bonds wrote on Facebook that King was “one of the sweetest, gentlest and gifted souls that I have had the privilege of knowing and calling my friend for more than 50 years.”
Discovered while working at his father’s restaurant in New York, King had several early hits with doo-wop vocal band The Drifters including “There Goes My Baby” and “Save the Last Dance For Me.”
But he had by far his greatest success with “Stand By Me,” which King had initially started writing for The Drifters before pursuing the song on his own.
Inspired by a traditional Gospel spiritual and a Psalm, the song was led by a now instantly identifiable bass line and featured chord progressions common in 1950s popular music.
The song was first released in 1961 but had several revivals and was covered hundreds of times in various genres.
“Stand By Me” went on to become the fourth most broadcast song on US radio and television in the 20th century, with more than seven million plays, according to songwriting body BMI.
The lyrics could be interpreted either as about a relationship with God or a partner, beginning with the image of a pitch-black night and the words, “I won’t be afraid / Just as long as you stand, stand by me.”
King would play down his lyrical skill, saying that “Stand By Me” was personal to him but that he wrote songs quickly.
“Songwriters just write songs. It’s like an artist that paints,” he told Boston public television network WGBH.
“But when I wrote ‘Stand By Me’ as a song, and to know that the song will probably be here for hundreds and hundreds of years to come, it’s great,” he said.
The song reached a new audience when it became the theme for the 1986 movie “Stand By Me,” a coming-of-age drama directed by Rob Reiner. The song again rose in the charts when it appeared in a jeans commercial.
The Library of Congress earlier this year chose “Stand By Me” for its National Recording Registry of “American treasures.”
In its announcement, the Library of Congress said that “Stand By Me” carried “perhaps the best known bassline in recording history” which was composed by songwriter Mike Stoller and played by Lloyd Trotman.
“But it was King’s incandescent vocal that made it a classic,” it said.
King’s other hits included “Spanish Harlem,” written with legendary producer Phil Spector, which has been covered by artists including Aretha Franklin and Tom Jones.
King was born as Benjamin Earl Nelson in segregated North Carolina but moved as a child to New York City, where he had no formal musical education but would sing in church.
His break came when a local promoter, Lover Patterson, entered a luncheonette in Harlem run by King’s father and asked the young singer and his friends to perform for him.
Also: ANGELES: Filmmaker Stephen Milburn Anderson, best known for 1992’s Oliver Stoneproduced “South Central” and 2010’s “Cash,” starring Sean Bean and Chris Hemsworth, died on May 1, at his home in Denver after a battle with throat cancer. He was 67.
Anderson was a pioneer in the use of digital filmmaking and an early advocate of the New Mexico Film Incentive Program.
Anderson wrote and directed eight movies. His short “Hearts of Stone” was the 1987 runner-up for Academy Award and played at the Sundance Film Festival, where it came to the attention of Oliver Stone, who subsequently produced Anderson’s first feature film, “South Central,” which was released by Warner Bros. The movie received wide critical acclaim, most notably in the New York Times where film critic Janet Maslin named Anderson one of the “Who’s Who Among Hot New Filmmakers in America,” along with Quentin Tarantino and Tim Robbins.
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