Saturday, February 17, 2007

Ben E. King - Stand By Me

It's no surprise that on Valentine's Day's week, it's a great love song that reached the top of the U.K. music charts! What might be a bit more amazing, is that it's not a new song but a pretty old one as its original release dates from 1961 or more than 25 years sooner! This song is Ben E. King's "Stand by Me".

So, how this song that already reached the U.S. top 10 in 1961, did to reach the top back in 1986 ?!? "Simply" because it was chosen as the theme song for Rob Reiner's movie "Stand by Me"... But it's also because that song has become a "classic" and is now part of our collective memory. Many covers of this song have been released (though King's stays the best one!), in 1975 for instance, John Lennon released his cover. Others like U2 performed the song in their tour, once, for their show in Philadelphia, they even sang it in duet with the boss itself: Bruce Springsteen!

In 1999, BMI named it as the 4th most performed song of the 20th century, with about 7 million performances!!!...

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