Stand by Me

We all have our favorite songs. Like just about everyone alive who is within earshot of a radio, I instantly react when I hear certain songs being played.

“Stand by Me,” co-written and originally recorded by Ben E. King, was released the year I graduated from high school in 1961 and it was one of the few songs that was played repeatedly during my senior prom and graduation dances.

As I remember it, everyone – and I mean everyone – was on the floor slow dancing with their date any time it played. Unlike some other songs of that period, even the adult chaperons seemed to like it and would join us on the dance floor or rocked to its melody as they stood watching to make sure we were not “dirty dancing.”

A few months later, as I was cruising down the freeway in my ’53 Chevy, that song came on the radio. I quickly turned the volume up to a point where every other noise was completely drowned out and my ears were beginning to bleed. I was so totally lost in the song as I continued on my merry way, that I was oblivious to the red lights and blaring siren from the police car that was following right behind me.

“Do you know that I have been following you for almost five miles?” the officer complained as he wrote me a traffic ticket for making a lane change without signaling. “What the hell were you doing? I thought that you might be asleep or even dead at the wheel.”

I admitted that I had been listening to the car radio with the volume turned up all the way and simply wasn’t paying attention. “Well maybe you’ll pay attention to the road instead of the radio after you pay for this ticket!” he responded.

In spite of that incident and having to pay a fine that I could not afford, I still loved that song.

There were a number of incidents in my life, many of them extremely painful and emotional, when this song would seem to suddenly reappear. I don’t know that it is my very favorite song, but it is one that can quickly stop me in my tracks to listen to it. At times it will bring tears to my eyes – simply because of the power of its message on me.

Ben E. King was one of the many lead singers of the Drifters, a very popular black rock-soul group that had its beginning in the 1950s. When Clyde McPhatter left the group, King took over most of the leads, using his soulful baritone on big hits like “Save the Last Dance for Me,” “This Magic Moment,” and other Drifters songs of that era.

King had originally offered “Stand by Me” to the Drifters, but they passed on it. He finally recorded the song as part of a session for his first solo album, but the producers decided not to include it on that album. Shortly after the release of that first album, “Stand by Me” was released as a single. That original version of King’s has become the standard by which all others are measured. There have literally been dozens of covers by prominent artists such as Marvin Gay, Ry Cooder, John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, Enrique Iglesias and Mickey Gilley. I feel that most of the cover versions that I’ve heard are quite good.

The one time I saw Ben E. King in person was during a concert appearance in the early 1990s at Billy Bob’s Texas Honky Tonk in Fort Worth. Due to bad weather, King barely made it to the concert, but the plane his band and all of their equipment was on didn’t arrive in time.

In spite of the lack of his own band, King gamely took the stage backed up by a makeshift group of local rednecks literally brought together at the last minute. The only song that they could play was, of course, “Stand By Me” – but absolutely nothing else in his vast repertoire. I doubt if the young fellows on stage even knew who Ben E. King was.

King played the piano on a couple of songs and the bass guitarist and drummer made feeble attempts to give his other songs a backbeat. King gave up trying to sing any of his Drifters hits or other songs. Everything worked out just fine when the audience joined in when he decided to just sing an extended version of “Stand By Me” that went on for about 20 minutes. When, nearing exhaustion, he finally stopped the song, the audience cheered and begged him for another encore.

Not one person in that audience complained or asked for their money back. That was the power of that song. Nobody in that crowd cared if it was the only song that King sung well that night.

I could go on forever telling stories about how this particular song has been a part of my life. I won’t put you through that, but I would like to share two recent occasions when this song popped up again, and as it has so many times before, totally ripped at my emotions.

On February 4th, PBS broadcast the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for 2009. The honoree was the late and greatly missed comedian, George Carlin. The show was both funny and very emotional as various guest hosts told anecdotes and shared video clips about Carlin. At the end of the program, 70-year old Ben E. King came out on stage and sang a very soft and subdued version of “Stand by Me” with a full orchestra behind him. I guarantee that there wasn’t a dry eye in that auditorium – nor in front of my TV set.

Some months before, I was watching PBS and caught one of my favorite shows, Bill Moyers Journal. One of the segments of his show introduced a new video program called “Playing for Change.” The producers traveled all over the world in 2003 to record performers from different countries, cultures and colors all singing the same song. They then returned to their studios and edited the results into one extended and combined version, blending both the sights and the sounds of these impressive artists into one wonderful production that they released in 2006.

The idea behind the video was the promotion of peace and understanding throughout the world through the use of music. What was the song that they selected that everyone sang with such joy and emotion? “Stand by Me” – of course.

The bottom line is that this song is powerful, stirring, and pulls at the emotions like few other musical compositions can (think of “Ave Maria,” “America the Beautiful” and “God Bless America”). It has created a special place for itself in our recent culture. It works, not because of its repeating lyrics and simplistic melody, but for the uplifting message it sends like an arrow to the heart.

So please “stand by me” and enjoy this wonderful video of “Playing for Change” for yourself. Be sure to check out the other great performances given with love and respect by a variety of artists in videos located in the side panel of this page.

Playing for Change – Go to PlayingforChange.com for more information.