Ben E. King

Ben E. King (born September 28, 1938, Henderson, North Carolina, U.S.—died April 30, 2015, Hackensack, New Jersey) was an American rhythm and blues singer who was the leader of the vocal group the Drifters in the late 1950s and early ’60s. He later earned acclaim as a solo artist with several hit singles, most notably “Stand by Me” (1961).

Born Benjamin Nelson, his early childhood was spent in North Carolina, where he sang in a church choir. After his family relocated to Harlem, as a junior high school student, he formed a doo-wop group called the Four B’s. Having failed in an attempt to join the Moonglows, in 1956 he was discovered while entertaining in his father’s Harlem luncheonette and was recruited to join the vocal group the Five Crowns.

Two years later George Treadwell, the manager of the Drifters, fired the original members of that group and replaced them with members of the Five Crowns. The reorganized Drifters, with Nelson as lead singer performing under the name Ben E. King, scored a top 10 hit on the pop singles chart for Atlantic Records with “There Goes My Baby” (1959) and took “Save the Last Dance for Me” (1960) to number one.

After leaving the Drifters, King, as a soloist, achieved top 10 hits with “Spanish Harlem” (1960) and “Stand by Me” (1961). “Stand by Me” proved especially influential; the song returned to the top 10 a quarter of a century after its original release when it was featured on the soundtrack of director Rob Reiner’s 1986 film Stand by Me. Other successful King singles included “Don’t Play That Song (You Lied)” (1962) and “I (Who Have Nothing)” (1963).

As a member of the Drifters, King was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. In 2014 the U.S. Library of Congress added “Stand by Me” to the National Recording Registry, a list of audio recordings deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”