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John Legend & Blake Shelton Sound Unreal on Their Casual Duet of "Stand by Me"
These The Voice alums gave us the harmonies we didn't know we needed!
Oh darlin, darlin, this is the duet we didn't know we needed!
The Voice Coach alums John Legend (Seasons 16-22, 24-25) and Blake Shelton (Seasons 1-23) performed a casual duet on the show's backlot (for Legend's YouTube series "Trailer Talk"), and they sounded amazing together. They sang "Stand By Me" by Ben E. King, and Legend's smooth vocals were the perfect counterpart to Shelton's down-home twang. Take a listen to their cover in the video further down this article. (Their singing starts around the three-minute mark.)
What to know about "Stand by Me" by Ben E. King
Called "the mother of all standards" by Far Out magazine, the song is known to almost every American music fan and has been recorded and performed by many Artists over the years.
Per Far Out, Philadelphia minister Charles Albert Tindley was the first to register a copyright on a song with that title in 1905, and his composition was a popular gospel song through the '50s. A singing group that included Sam Cooke, who would go on to have a successful solo career, recorded a version called "Stand By Me, Lord," which is when Ben E. King heard it.
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From there, King hooked onto the phrase "Stand By Me" and began to write the version we know today. He brought his lyrics and melody to songwriting duo Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who added the now-iconic bass line. "Stand by Me" by Ben E. King was released in 1961, and the rest is history.
