SING IT AGAIN, BEN

Ben E. King co-wrote and sang the song “Stand By Me” 25 years ago. He went to see the film of the same name and was afraid that “they might have made a Frankie Avalon beach party movie, because of what my daughter told me about the Stephen King story.”

R&B; singer King, now 47 (no relation to Stephen), didn’t even know his vocal was in the film: “I kept hearing the instrumental version and was surprised when the song appeared at the end.”

His recording was rereleased last week as a single and is getting lots of airplay due to the film’s popularity. King also made a video with River Phoenix and Wil Wheaton, two of the movie’s young stars, that incorporates black-and-white TV footage of King’s 1961 appearance on Dick Clark’s “Where the Action Is.”

The song was also used in the 1984 film “The Flamingo Kid.” It also was used last week on the debut of NBC’s 1960s-rooted series “Crime Story”--during a gangland murder. “It’s amazing how the song seems so far removed from how I wrote in ‘Crime Story.’ It just shows a good song can last forever. I keep telling my wife ‘Stand By Me’ pays for all the doughnuts whenever we drink our coffee.”