This Classic, Soulful and heavenly song by Ben E King was sang at the Royal wedding by The Kingdom choir.
Bio
Ben E. King was born on September 28, 1938 in Henderson, North Carolina, USA as Benjamin Earl Nelson. He was married to Betty Nelson. He died on April 30, 2015 in Hackensack, New Jersey, USA. Married Betty Nelson from 1964 - till death ( 3 children)
Trivia
Elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (as a member of The Drifters) in 1988.
He left The Drifters in 1960 and embarked on a successful solo career. "Spanish Harlem" reached the Top 10 that year. "Stand by Me", which he co-wrote, reached the Top 10 in 1961 (and again in 1986, when it was used in the soundtrack of the Rob Reiner film of the same name, Stand by Me (1986)).
He changed his surname to King, which belonged to a favorite uncle, soon after joining The Drifters.
He grew up in Harlem, where his father had moved the family when he was a child. He began singing in church choirs. In high school, he formed a doo-wop group, the Four B's, that occasionally performed at the Apollo Theater.
Lyrics
When the night has come
And the land is dark
And the moon is the only light we'll see
No I won't be afraid, no I won't be afraid
Just as long as you stand, stand by me
So darlin', darlin', stand by me, oh stand by me
Oh stand by me, stand by me
If the sky that we look upon
Should tumble and fall
Or the mountains should crumble to the sea
I won't cry, I won't cry, no I won't shed a tear
Just as long as you stand, stand by me
And darlin', darlin', stand by me, oh stand by me
Oh stand now by me, stand by me, stand by me-e, yeah
And darlin', darlin', stand by me, oh stand by me
Oh, stand now by me, stand by me, stand by me-e, yeah
Whenever you're in trouble won't you stand by me, oh now now stand by me
Oh stand by me, stand by me
Oh stand by me, stand by me
Personal Quotes
- Those things don't happen today. I feel sorry for the kids in the industry today. They have on sunglasses, eat caviar in jet planes, but they'll never know the true feeling that we did.
- I still think my whole career was accidental. I didn't pursue it. I feel like I'm cheating sometimes.
- I do like what Alicia Keys and John Legend are doing. With their music, you keep your clothes on.
- Yeah. I've been pretty fortunate to travel I guess, all around the place.
- I never even visualized for a second doing what I'm doing.
- The movie [Stand by Me (1986)] is actually from a book, by Stephen King, called "The Body". When they were gonna make it into a motion picture, they found the story was a bit too strong for the title, "The Body", based on a young kid's movie. It would be too heavy.
- It doesn't take me long to write songs.
- It never dawned on me at any particular time of my life that people are paid tremendous money to sing.
Songwriters: Ben King / Jerry Leiber / Mike Stoller