Happy Birthday: Ben E. King
Today’s the birthday of the late Ben E. King, who crooned such classic Drifters tunes as “There Goes My Baby,” “Save the Last Dance for Me,” and “This Magic Moment” before shifting to a solo career and delivering unto the world his classic single “Stand By Me.” To celebrate his life, we’re offering up Rhino’s Ben E. King playlist, but we’ve also got a six-pack of tracks outside of King’s solo career that featured him offering some degree of vocal contribution.
1. The Average White Band, “A Star in the Ghetto” (1977): To ease into the six-pack, we start off with a track from an album that was a full-fledged collaboration between King and the Average White Band, but since it’s credited to both of them, we’re using it. The BENNY AND US album came about by complete coincidence: the Average White Band just happened to be vacationing in Miami and met King, who was just starting work on his new album. The next thing you know, two musical powerhouses joined forces, and the end result ended up selling better than any other studio album of King’s career.
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2. Intergalactic Touring Band, “Love Station” (1977): It’s hard to imagine this album coming out in any year other than the one which brought us Star Wars. In fact, it’s hard to imagine it at all, but try to wrap your head around it anyway: THE INTERGALACTIC TOURING BAND was a sci-fi concept album about colonizing space over the course of multiple generations, featuring vocal contributions from King, Meat Loaf, Rod Argent, Annie Haslam, Arthur Brown, Dave Cousins of the Strawbs, Percy Jones of Brand X, Peppi Marchello of the Good Rats, Larry Fast of Synergy, and Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt of Status Quo. See what we mean? Only in ’77.
3. Gary U.S. Bonds, “Your Love” (1981): King’s presence on this track is no surprise if you know anything about Bonds: the two men had literally been friends for over half a century when King died in 2015. Indeed, upon learning of King’s death, Bonds posted a farewell on his Facebook page, saying that the singer would “be missed more than words can say” and calling him “one of the sweetest, gentlest and gifted souls that I have had the privilege of knowing and calling my friend for more than 50 years.”
4. John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band, “Boardwalk Angel” (1983): We don’t know the back story on how King came to sing on this track, but we do know that Cafferty paid tribute to King a few days after his death. During their set at the 2015 SunFest musical festival in West Palm Beach, Cafferty spoke briefly about the experience of working with King and mentioned that the singer had praised his writing on “Boardwalk Angel,” after which they played the song in King’s honor. Nice one, Mr. Cafferty.
5. Fatback, “So Delicious” (1985): King popped in to take lead vocals on two tracks on the band’s SO DELICIOUS album, the other being “Evil,” but with a sax solo from David Sanborn, you have to give the edge to the title track.
6. Paul Shaffer, “What Is Soul” (1989): This is a perfect way of bringing things full circle to wrap up, since this tune originally appeared on – wait for it – BENNY AND US. To kick the R&B awesomeness up a notch, however, Shaffer opted to bring in a few other vocalists for the track: Bobby Womack, Don Covay, and Wilson Pickett.
