Everyone will be familiar with the Ben E King original of this track but this version is a little less known. Little Eva is of course most famous for recording the The Loco-Motion. She was born Eva Narcissus Boyd in 1943 in Bellhaven, North Carolina and moved to New York to finish her education. Whilst in New York, Eva worked as a maid and babysitter for Carole King and Gerry Goffin. It was through this connection that she came to record the Loco-Motion, although the song was originally intended for Dee Dee Sharpe.
Little Eva’s version of Stand By Me was released in 1965 and was her only release on Amy, as far as I can tell. It is more up beat than the Ben E King version and works well as a mid-paced dancer. Eva puts in a great vocal performance and it builds to a nice finale. There seem to be quite a few copies of this floating around and I do not think that it is particularly collectable, hence you can get a great song at a really reasonable price.
2 comments:
I love this version of "Stand By Me" and you're right that it's a tad more uptempo than Ben E King's version, so it's a bit more floor friendly. I picked my copy up for $6.00 and if I had a dollar for everyone that has asked me who it was when I play it.... i'd easily have trebled my money.
top top tune, never heard it until it was on yer cd the other week
keep em coming roger
ta
snowy
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