RIP Ben E King

'Stand By Me' R&B legend Ben E. King dead at 76 - WTOP

So many great songs with the Drifters and as a solo artist.
He will be missed.

 

Saw that movie twice at the theater when it came out -- partly because of the song.

 

Stand By Me is one of the greatest songs of the 60s.

 

Another one.

 

That little obit is wrong. He didn't start with the Drifters. Before that, he was lead singer of a group called The Five Crowns. He was Benjamin E. Nelson at the time.

In 1958, the Crowns were opening for the Drifters, who were already a big draw. The Drifters' manager, George Treadwell, had been battling with the group's members for months over several issues (including excessive drinking), and one night, during a show at the Apollo Theater, one of the Drifters cursed at the theater's owner. Treadwell, who owned the rights to the name Drifters, promptly fired the entire group, turned to the Crowns and basically told them, "Congratulations! You're the new Drifters!"

That's when Ben E. Nelson became Ben E. King. I always thought it was because his former group was the Crowns (Get it? King? Crowns?) but I just read something that said it was the surname of his favorite uncle.

He wasn't with the Drifters all that long -- less than two years, I think -- but he wrote and sang a number of their big hits of the time, including "There Goes My Baby" and "Save the Last Dance for Me," which was the Drifters' only No. 1 pop hit.

His first big hit as a solo act was "Spanish Harlem," followed, of course, by "Stand By Me."

 

Percy Sledge. Ben E. King. If I'm Wilson Pickett, I stay on the couch for a few days.

 

Wilson Pickett died Jan. 19, 2006. He was 64.

 

RIP

 

Then he'll damn sure stay on the couch.

 

Wait, how was Ben E. King only 76 years old?

 

Wow, just looked it up, born in Sept. 1938. He was 18 when he joined the Five Crowns and 19 when he was promoted to the Drifters.

 

Really?? Damn.

That's explains why I haven't seen him on tour.