Stand by Me

Ben E. King, the North Carolina born singer who had fronted The Drifters, released Stand by Me in 1961 as his second solo single. He wrote it with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, drawing on a gospel hymn he had sung in church, and he had offered the song to The Drifters first, who turned it down. Couples choose it because the lyric is a promise to stay through darkness and fear rather than a description of romance, and the famous bass line walks along at a pace that suits a confident slow dance. It returned to the charts in 1986 when Rob Reiner's film of the same name revived it.