Symphonies keeping King on the road

The R&B singer is in the rock hall of fame as a member of The Drifters.

By JOHN BENSON

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

Singer Ben E. King estimates it’s been roughly four decades since the former member of The Drifters and popular solo soul artist came through Mahoning County.

“I was in Youngstown with The Drifters and also solo,” said King, calling from his New Jersey home. “It was a great time, and I look forward to coming back. It’s been a while.”

Over the past 40 years a lot has happened to King (born Benjamin Earl Nelson), who will appear Saturday with the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra at Powers Auditorium. The singer made the unlikely journey from celebrity to obscurity and back again in 1986 when his song “Stand By Me” was used as the title of a Stephen King short story turned into a feature film. And then in 1988, King was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Drifters.

Things change

“Yeah, I’ve had a few careers,” said King, known for his gospel-rooted, high-pitched vocal style. “I wish I could tell you why. I don’t know, you wake up each day with something new going on in your life and you just go with it. But you don’t think things like that would happen to you. At the moment you have success and you ride that success and you don’t think anything is going to happen beyond that.”

He added, “And The Drifters is one of the pioneer groups of R&B, and their songs will live forever.”

A member of The Drifters from 1953 to 1958, the R&B vocalist became a solo artist in 1960. “Stand By Me,” which was a No. 1 hit in 1961, is the song that twice defined his storied career. King said he lifted the title from a Sam Cooke & the Soul Stirrers song. However, he never expected it to be a hit in the ’60s, let alone in the ’80s. So what was it like to once again be thrown into the world of pop music?

“You enjoy the moment and hopefully you can say that you enjoyed that moment because a lot of people go off the deep end and buy this, do that, go here, go there,” King said. “They have to surround themselves with everything in the world that more than likely they don’t need, so I was fortunate not to do that. And ‘Stand By Me’ was one of those really, really, really rare things that go on in life, and I’m blessed.”

Bigger, better

Something that keeps the 69-year-old King on his toes in the new millennium is his love of performing with symphony orchestras.

“Why I’m doing this is because it’s rare you get a chance to enjoy music you recorded many, many years ago — 50 years, to be honest with you — with the same feelings you had at the original recording,” King said. “You get a chance to work with strings and sit in the middle of what you created years before.”

He also made a few promises about his career retrospective show that may appeal directly to those old-school fans.

“I will use no profanity, I’m not going to spin on my head and I won’t put my cap backwards,” King laughed. “And the girls are going to have their clothes on well up to their necks. So it’s a night of fun, and I hope you all come out and have fun with us.”