28 February 1987
The video (below) is for the hit movie of the same name, while the sleeve (above) is for the high-profile jeans commercial in which it also featured. With that sort of double-barrelled marketing firepower behind it, the re-released ‘Stand By Me’ was never not going to be a number one.
Okay, maybe it ill-becomes me to be so cynical around this song. The sparse arrangement is refreshing, and both singer and song do their job efficiently. However, Ben E. King is not one of the great soul voices, the song itself gets repetitive fairly quickly, and the sentiment is a bit mawkish for my taste. Of the three ’60s soul stars who topped the charts in early 1987, only King did so with a re-release of his signature hit, and even then he still barely beats those uncharacteristically weak Jackie Wilson and Aretha Franklin songs. ‘Stand By Me’, a soul classic? Not in those trousers.
