Some of these hits include 'What is Soul?', 'Tears, Tears, Tears', 'So Much Love', and 'Til I Can't Take It Anymore'. British pop bands began to dominate the pop music scene, but King still continued to make R&B hits. King's records continued to place well on the Billboard Hot 100 chart until 1965. In the summer of 1963, King had a Top 30 hit with ' I (Who Have Nothing)', which reached the Top 10 on New York's radio station, WMCA. King's other well-known songs include ' Don't Play That Song (You Lied)', ' Amor', 'Seven Letters', 'How Can I Forget', 'On the Horizon', ' Young Boy Blues', 'First Taste of Love', 'Here Comes the Night', 'Ecstasy', and 'That's When It Hurts'. 'Stand by Me', 'There Goes My Baby', 'Spanish Harlem', and 'Save the Last Dance for Me' were all named in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll and each of those records has earned a Grammy Hall of Fame Award. King cited singers Brook Benton, Roy Hamilton and Sam Cooke as influences for his vocals of the song. His next single, ' Stand by Me', written with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, ultimately would be voted as one of the Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry Association of America. Remaining with Atlantic Records on its Atco imprint, King scored his first solo hit with the ballad ' Spanish Harlem' (1961). In May 1960, King left the Drifters, assuming the stage name Ben E. On television, fellow Drifters member Charlie Thomas usually lip-synched the songs that King had recorded with the Drifters. Дue to contract disputes with Treadwell in which King and his manager, Lover Patterson, demanded greater compensation, King rarely performed with the Drifters on tour or on television. The last of the King-led Drifters singles to be released was 'Sometimes I Wonder', which was recorded May 19, 1960, but not issued until June 1962. King recorded only thirteen songs with the Drifters-two backing other lead singers and eleven lead vocal performances-including a non-single called 'Temptation' (later redone by Drifters vocalist Johnny Moore). He sang lead on a succession of hits by the team of Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, including ' Save the Last Dance for Me', ' This Magic Moment', and 'I Count the Tears'. He co-wrote and sang lead on the first Atlantic hit by the new version of the Drifters, ' There Goes My Baby' (1959). King had a string of R&B hits with the group on Atlantic Records. Later that year, the Drifters' manager George Treadwell fired the members of the original Drifters, and replaced them with the members of the Five Crowns. In 1958, King (still using his birth name) joined a doo-wop group called the Five Crowns. King began singing in church choirs, and in high school formed the Four B's, a doo-wop group that occasionally performed at the Apollo. King was born Benjamin Earl Nelson on September 28, 1938, in Henderson, North Carolina, and moved to Harlem, New York, at the age of nine in 1947.

Ben e king discography wiki