Listen to the unusual Led Zeppelin cover of Ben E. King song ‘Stand By Me’
In October 1972, Led Zeppelin gave their unorthodox take on Ben E. King’s classic hit ‘Stand By Me’. King originally wrote the song with his regular collaborators Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who together used the pseudonym Elmo Glick.
King’s version, released in 1961, was a gospel-inspired rhythm and blues ballad that was inspired by a spiritual song written by Sam Cooke and J. W. Alexander called ‘Stand by Me Father’. The song was recorded most notably by the Soul Stirrers.
In a 2012 interview with Marc Myers of JazzWax, Mike Stoller recalled writing ‘Stand By Me’. He said: “When I walked in, Jerry and Ben E. were working on the lyrics to a song. They were at an old oak desk we had in the office. Jerry was sitting behind it, and Benny was sitting on the top.”
Stoller continued: “They looked up and said they were writing a song. I said, ‘Let me hear it.’… Ben began to sing the song a cappella. I went over to the upright piano and found the chord changes behind the melody he was singing. It was in the key of A. Then, I created a bass line. Jerry said, ‘Man, that’s it!’ We used my bass pattern for a starting point and, later, we used it as the basis for the string arrangement created by Stanley Applebaum.”
‘Stand By Me’ became the jewel on King’s crown, reaching the US Billboard Top Ten twice; once in 1961 and again in 1986, after it was used as the theme song for the Rob Reiner directed film of the same name based on the Stephen King novella The Body. For the same reason, the song reached number one on the UK charts in 1987.
The wedding staple has been kept alive with countless covers over the past 60 years, with notable versions recorded by the likes of Otis Redding, John Lennon, Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali), Tracy Chapman and Florence and the Machine.
While Led Zeppelin never recorded ‘Stand By Me’ in the studio, they gave a good idea of how they would reimagine the classic while on tour in Osaka, Japan, in 1972.
Listen below.
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