Tag: Mike Stoller

This is one of the great songs in pop history. I know I’m in the minority but I’ve always favored John Lennon’s version but…the two versions of the same song are apples and oranges. Lennon changed it and made it choppy. King’s version is as smooth as you can get…both are great to me.

King recorded this after he left the Drifters. Charles Albert Tindley wrote “Stand By Me” but it was a gospel hymn. He did copyright it but some say it goes back a century early.

The Staple Singers covered it in 1955 and King tried to get the Drifters to cover it but they rejected it. Now… let’s back it up a little…this version of Stand By Me really didn’t sound like the version we know. King took this song to songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and they modernized it and made it into the song we know today with King’s help.

The bassline was the innovation the track has been missing. It gave what had been a mournful gospel hymn the uplifting rhythm it needed. King also had the idea of asking the drummer to turn over his snare and scrape across the skin with a brush – creating that infectious groove.

Leiber, Stoller, and King were credited but they left off Tindley’s name who came up with the version of the song they heard.

The song peaked at #4 on the Billboard 100, #1 in the UK, #45 in New Zealand, and #16 in Canada (Chum Hit Parade) in 1961.

Some 25 years after the song first became a hit, it was given a new lease of life by Rob Reiner, who asked to use King’s original arrangement for a movie he was working on called Stand By Me (same version). It peaked at #1 in Canada, #9 on the Billboard 100, #45 in New Zealand, and #1 in the UK in 1986-87. It also was included in a Levi’s commercial in the UK.

A side personal note… Our band played this song when we were the house band for a club…more like the John Lennon version and I did the vocals. I had an “idea” for this song. I would look for a girl between songs and ask her…” Would you want to slow dance in a minute?” The first one I ever asked said yes. So I started the song and I did a couple verses and chorus and then I put my guitar on its stand and walked off the stage while the other guitar player played a long solo straight to the girl… and I continued to slow dance her. Sometimes the song would last 10-15 minutes much to the band’s dismay and frustration…but finally, I would come back up and finally finish it with another verse and chorus.  After the first time I did this…I had volunteers the next night. I was never a lady’s man at all…but this worked out for me… I dated a few of my dance partners…and I’m no dancer.

Jerry Leiber:  “Ben E. is not a songwriter, he’s a singer, he might have written two songs in his whole career. I would guess that this comes out of church. The whole ‘stand by me’ and the way the release takes out, it sounds like a gospel-type song.”

Stand By Me

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, oh 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
Stand by me, stand by me

If the sky that we look upon
Should tumble and fall
Or the mountain 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
Whoa, stand now
Stand by me, stand by me

Darlin’, darlin’, stand by me
Oh, stand by me
Oh, stand now
Stand by me, stand by me
Whenever you’re in trouble, won’t you stand by me?
Oh, stand by me
Whoa, just stand now
Oh, stand, stand by me

When all of your friends have gone

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