{"id":2213,"date":"2011-08-14T03:01:41","date_gmt":"2011-08-14T03:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/?p=2213"},"modified":"2011-08-14T03:01:41","modified_gmt":"2011-08-14T03:01:41","slug":"sunday_bonus_video_stand_by_me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/2011\/08\/14\/sunday_bonus_video_stand_by_me\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Bonus Video: &#8220;Stand by Me&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div align=\"left\">As promised yesterday, here&#8217;s Ben E. King performing his signature tune &#8220;Stand by Me&#8221; with the stars of the movie <i>Stand by Me<\/i>, Wil Wheaton and River Phoenix. (Wil and River aren&#8217;t actually singing or anything, but they are there in the video, along with some truly excellent &#8212; or egregious, depending on your perspective &#8212; examples of mid-80s casual fashion&#8230;)<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Vbg7YoXiKn0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"405\" width=\"500\"><\/iframe>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Ben E. King had been a member of the fabulous R&amp;B group The Drifters (a group notorious for frequent changes in personnel, usually due to disputes over money), but he left in 1960 to embark on a solo career. &#8220;Stand by Me&#8221; was his second major solo hit following the lovely &#8220;Spanish Harlem&#8221;; it made it to number four on the <i>Billboard <\/i>chart in 1961. Then, like many other notable songs from the &#8217;60s, it found a second life in the 1980s after appearing in a popular movie. It peaked at number nine in 1986.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, I don&#8217;t remember ever seeing this clip back in the day. I first encountered it on the <i>Stand by Me<\/i> Special Edition DVD released in 2000 and it utterly charmed me with its nostalgic transition from 1961 Ben E. King to 1986 Ben E. King &#8212; he didn&#8217;t change much in 25 years! &#8212; and of course with the presence of Wil Wheaton and River Phoenix. I like that they weren&#8217;t playing Gordie and Chris, but were (apparently) themselves, and they seemed to genuinely understand the coolness of hanging out with a musical legend. Or at least they acted as if they did. I can&#8217;t help but smile when I watch this&#8230; even if it is a little eerie knowing that River would die on a grimy sidewalk outside a sleazy LA nightclub a mere seven years later. Watching him in this video, seeing his effortless charisma and confidence, even at such a tender age, only underscores the tragedy of his too-soon death. He could&#8217;ve made so much of his life, and it&#8217;s so evident in this clip&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As promised yesterday, here&#8217;s Ben E. King performing his signature tune &#8220;Stand by Me&#8221; with the stars of the movie Stand by Me, Wil Wheaton and River Phoenix. (Wil and River aren&#8217;t actually singing or anything, but they are there in the video, along with some truly excellent &#8212; or egregious, depending on your perspective [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film-studies","category-friday-evening-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2213\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}