The great Ben E King on David Letterman in 2007, with a proper orchestral backing, maybe even bigger than on the original recording - and they've even taken the trouble to get the right percussion (no, it wasn't a guiro - read the posts below).
What a joy to hear - and long may he endure.
Related Post:
Ben E King at the Jazz Cafe and repost about Stand By Me
The voice isn't what it used to be. After all it's only 50 years since he first recorded it.
ReplyDeleteThose strings take me back to 1959, sitting in a pub and somebody puts the Drifters' "There Goes My Baby" on the juke box. I'd never heard anything like it. I was KO-ed.
Yes, I talk in some of the posts linked to above about Ben E King's voice. But it still sounds pretty good, because he sounds involved with the song - and maybe also uplifted on this occasion by the well-deserved full backing treatment. If you go back a few posts to my piece about Jerry Leiber, there is an embedded Leiber and Stoller documentary at the end of the post with King talking about recording There Goes My Baby and other songs: there are all the musicians and singers in the studio, someone points at him, and he has to go for it.
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