Ben E. King

King continued to perform and record through the 1990s. In 1992 the Peter Chelsom film Hear My Song was released, a fantasy based on the notion of Locke returning from his Irish exile to complete an old love affair and save a Liverpool-based Irish night-club from ruination, with Locke played by Ned Beatty. Ben E. Kildare, emerging for the occasional charity concert and reappearing in Blackpool in 1968, making his last public appearance in the 1970s. His hits after 1963 were "What is Soul?" (1967), "Supernatural Thing, part 1" (1975), and the re-issue in 1986 of "Stand by Me," which became popular after serving as the theme music of the movie of the same name. When his differences with the tax people were eventually settled, Locke retired to Co. King's records continued to place well on the pop charts until 1963, when British pop bands began to dominate the popular music scene. Eventually he fled the country for Ireland, where he lay low for several years.

"Stand by Me", written by King along with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller was voted one of the Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry Association of America and it plus "Spanish Harlem" were named as two of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll and were both also given a Grammy Hall of Fame Award. In 1958 after appearing in five Royal Variety Performances, and while still at the peak of his career, the British tax authorities began to make substantial demands that Locke declined to meet. "Stand by Me" was his next recording. His other songs were mostly a mixture of Irish ballads such as I'll take you home again Kathleen, Dear old Donegal and Galway Bay, excerpts from operettas including The Drinking song, My Heart and I, and Goodbye, along with familiar Italian favourites such as Come back to Sorrento and Cara Mia. His first hit as a solo performer was "Spanish Harlem" (1961). In 1947, too, Locke released Hear my song, Violetta, which became forever associated with him. King and performed solo. He was signed to the Columbia label in 1947, and his first releases were the two Italian songs Santa Lucia and Come back to Sorrento.

He adopted the stage name Ben E. He made his first radio broadcast in 1949, and subsequently appeared on TV programmes such as Rooftop Rendezvous, Top of the Town, All-star Bill and The Frankie Howerd Show. In 1960 he left the group after failing to obtain a raise in salary and increase in his share of royalties. The renowned Irish tenor John McCormack (1894-1948) advised him that his voice was better suited to a lighter repertoire than the operatic one he had in mind, and urged him to find an agent -- thus he found the noted impresario Jack Hylton (1892-1965) who booked him, but couldn't fit his full name on the bill, thus Joseph McLaughlin became Josef Locke. He also sang lead, using his birth name, on "Dance With Me," "This Magic Moment," "Save the Last Dance for Me," "I Count the Tears," and other Drifters hits. Known as The Singing Bobby, he became a local celebrity before starting to work the UK variety circuit, where he played 19 seasons in the northern English seaside resort of Blackpool. He co-wrote the first hit by the new version of the Drifters, "There Goes My Baby" (1959). He started singing in local churches in the Bogside at the age of seven, and as a teenager added two years to his age in order to enlist in the Irish Guards, later serving abroad with the Palestine Police, before returning in the late 1930s to join the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

Later that same year, The Drifters' manager fired the members of the group and replaced them with the Five Crowns, who had performed several engagements with the Drifters. Born in Londonderry, now in Northern Ireland, he was the son of a butcher and cattle dealer, and one of nine children. In 1958, Ben Nelson joined a doo wop group, The Five Crowns. Josef Locke was the stage name of Joseph McLaughlin (23 March 1917 - 15 October 1999), a tenor singer who was enormously popular in Britain and Ireland in the 1940s and 1950s. King (born Benjamin Earl Nelson in September 28, 1938 in Henderson, North Carolina) is an American soul and pop singer.He is best known as the singer and co-composer of "Stand by Me", a top ten hit in both 1961 and 1986. Ben E.