Ben E King: Stand By Me

King co-wrote this with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Stoller later said that King was 50 per cent responsible for the song, and he and Leiber 25 per cent each. It was King’s second solo hit after he left The Drifters (the first was Spanish Harlem which reached No 10 in the States in 1960). It was recorded in the same studio session as Spanish Harlem and was released in 1961, making No 4 in the US and 27 in Britain. It was re-released after featuring on the soundtrack of the 1986 film Stand by Me and got to No 9 in American and No 1 here.