Beloved soul singer singer Ben E. King, popularly known for the one of the greatest song of his generation and other generations to follow, ‘Stand By Me’, has died at 76.
News outlets such as Telegraph reports that the soul singer died of natural causes, according to his agent. The BBC referenced the singer’s publicist, Phil Brown, as saying King died on Thursday.
King gained prominence in the late 1950’s with The Drifters, with songs including There Goes My Baby and Save The Last Dance For Me. King later found great success after he went solo with ‘Stand By Me’ in 1961. Fellow musician Gary US Bonds paid tribute to King on Facebook, regarding him as “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.”
Early Life
Originaly born Benjamin Earl King on September 28, 1938, King joined a doo wop group called the Five Crowns in 1958,. Later in 1958, the Drifters’ manager George Treadwell fired the members of the original Drifters, and replaced them with the Five Crowns. King would later record just thirteen songs with the Drifters. Due to a contract dispute with Treadwell in which King and his manager, Lover Patterson, demanded that King be given a salary increase and a fair share of royalties, King never again performed with the Drifters on tour or on television; he would only record with the group until a suitable replacement could be found.
Read Also: Soulful Singer Percy Sledge Dies
King left the Drifters in May 1960, and thus assumed the more memorable stage name Ben E. King in anticipation of a successful solo career. He remained with Atlantic Records and scored his first solo hit with the ballad “Spanish Harlem” (1961). His next single, “Stand by Me”, written with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, ultimately would be voted as one of the Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry Association of America. “Stand by Me”, “There Goes My Baby”, and “Spanish Harlem” were named as three of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll; and each of those records plus “Save The Last Dance For Me” has earned a Grammy Hall of Fame Award.
A 1986 re-issue of “Stand by Me” followed the song’s use as the theme song to the movie Stand By Me and re-entered the Billboard Top Ten after a 25-year absence. According to the BBC, ‘Stand By Me’ is on record the fourth most played song on US radio in the 20th century.
On March 27, 2012, the Songwriters Hall of Fame announced that “Stand By Me” would receive its 2012 Towering Song Award and that King would be honored with the 2012 Towering Performance Award for his recording of the song.
