麻豆约拍

Suzi Quatro continues to profile figures from the rock 'n' roll era. This week, Ben E King tells Suzi about his career, which - in his view - seems to have progressed by happenstance!

First of all, he was singing for fun with a group called the Five Crowns, who suddenly became the Drifters in 1959. The original group were fired by their manager during an engagement at New York's Apollo Theatre. Their manager had been impressed by the Crowns who were on the same bill and invited them to become the "new" Drifters.

He was a background harmony singer with the Five Crowns but when things were not going smoothly with a recording of his song There Goes My Baby, he was asked to step up to the microphone to sing the lead vocal. "I'd never done it before. It changed my life". His distinctive baritone voice graced subsequent Drifters US hits - Dance With Me, This Magic Moment and Save The Last Dance For Me.

He had not planned a solo career, but he left because he had failed to secure an increase in the Drifters' salary. His first solo hit was a song originally intended for his old group - Spanish Harlem. Luck had played a part again because, delayed by snowy conditions, the rest of the Drifters had not made it to the studio to record the song.

As Ben E recalls, he benefited from working with the dazzlingly inventive production team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller singing songs written by the best songwriters around. His classic record Stand By Me was co-written by Ben E with Leiber and Stoller. It hit Number One in the UK in 1987 when it was featured in a jeans commercial - 26 years after it was first released.