But the next Drifters hit, “I Count the Tears,” in 1960, was the last to feature him singing lead. According to King, management and money problems common to R&B groups in the early Sixties ...

NEW YORK — Ben E. King, the unforgettable lead singer for the Drifters and solo star whose plaintive baritone graced such pop and rhythm and blues classics as “Stand By Me,” “There Goes My ...

But the greatest ex-Drifter was Ben E King, whose rich baritone graced hits like “Spanish Harlem” and, most famously, “Stand By Me”, which earlier this year was inducted into the US ...

The “new” Drifters, as they would come to be known, had their own troubles. Ben E. King, lead vocalist on 1959’s breakthrough “There Goes My Baby,” defected in order to go solo in 1960.

Ben E. King was one of the senior figures of soul music, having made his mark in the 1960s first as the lead singer of the Drifters and later with solo hits such as Spanish Harlem and Stand by Me.

Ben E King tells BBC Breakfast, external how few people at the time, including The Drifters, were interested in recording his now iconic song 'Stand By Me'.

In addition to singing and co-composing that iconic 1961 track, King was one of the lead members of the Drifters from 1958 to 1960. According to The Telegraph, King died of natural causes on Thursday, ...