Ben E. King
Ben E. King
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth28 September 1938
CountryUnited States of America
song writing heart
During those times like in my early years as a writer I could actually write a song in ten minutes because all of a sudden a song is writing itself, I'm just putting down words. It just seem each line that you put down flows with the other ones. It's like writing a love letter you don't think about it, it's something from the heart.
writing stand-by-me how-you-feel
You're writing it is how you feel. And when you're finished you put your signature on it and you mail it off and that's it. And that's how "Stand By Me" was really.
song writing thinking
I think that the song, the song "Stand By Me" is one of those songs that... and someone asked me, what was you thinking about or what was you feeling about? It's something that, songwriters just write songs. It's like an artist that paints. They paint what they feel. It's not, it's not about how many of these painting I'll sell it's just how they feel at the moment. And that's how I wrote "Stand By Me".
song writing creating
I enjoyed singing, I loved song writing, I loved recording. All those things that involves with creating music was great.
song writing guitar
Yeah. I'm amateurish. I can play enough to write a song, or strum on a little guitar to write out a song. But, I don't play well at all. I wouldn't even attempt for a second to play in public.
song writing long
It doesn't take me long to write songs.
bubbling falling jumping love
The thing I love is when some of them have 15 dancers. Everyone's jumping and falling and bubbling around. It's a distraction.
equipment gather
You do your show, gather up your little equipment and we get on the bus. You have your little area, and they have their little area.
days everybody quality sound talent wanting
I don't think we have the quality talent that we did back then. We were more raw. These days you have everybody wanting to sound like everybody else.
american-musician based bit found gonna motion title
The movie is actually from a book by Stephen King called The Body. When they were gonna put it to 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.
earlier echo halls perform roy sing singers subway
In my vocal, I think you can hear something of my earlier times when I'd sing in subway halls for the echo and perform doo-wop on street corners. But I had a lot of influences, too - singers like Sam Cooke, Brook Benton and Roy Hamilton.
across dad guess kids local lover name saw street
He was a manager, one of the singers, I guess talent coordinator for the local talent in Harlem. His name was Lover Patterson. He was living right across the street from where my dad had his restaurant. I guess he saw a lot of kids come in, a lot of my buddies.
dollars everybody found hundred members remember upset
One of the members of the group, I can't remember which one, found out we were making $3 - $5,000 a night. We were getting a hundred dollars a week a piece. Everybody got upset about it.
I'd originally intended 'Stand By Me' for the Drifters.