Two Dummies

BEN E. KING - I (Who Have Nothing) / The Beginning Of Time - Atco-6267 - 1963

After a couple years as lead singer for The Drifters, Ben E. King launched a solo career in 1960 on the ATCO label. Within no time he cut "Stand By Me," one of the most well-known soul songs of all time. And two years later, he released this record.

Both tracks here are stunningly dramatic and powerful soul songs. The vocals alone are enough to command attention, especially with lines like, "He can take you any place he wants, to fancy clubs and restaurants, but I can only watch you with my nose pressed up against a window. Ohhhhh...!" What pushes these tracks over the top is the way the instrumentation works with the song to stir up all the melodrama of love. The A-side does this with huge tympani hits, a desolate woodblock and a lonely, inconclusive trumpet outro making for a love song of despair. But the flip-side (my favorite) follows with swooping string arrangements, xylophone accents, and angelic backup vocals dripping with reverb. The result is a balancing of the depair on the A-side with a mood of hopeful resolve on the flip.

This record has got me on a Ben E. King kick and I've been hunting down anything and everything of his I can find.

I (Who Have Nothing):


The Beginning Of Time:


[Kyle Brown]