Friday, 1st May 2015
Ben E. King/Joe Elliott 1988
Legendary US R&B singer Ben E. King has died at the age of 76 and video of his rare performance with Def Leppard in 1988 is available.
He died of natural causes yesterday and is best remembered for his hit song 'Stand By Me' from 1961.
Def Leppard performed two playback versions of 'Hysteria' in February 1988 at the San Remo Festival in Italy.
Whilst there Phil, Steve and Sav were asked by Ben E. King to perform as part of his backing band on a version of 'Stand By Me'.
The performance including Phil's full guitar solo can be see below. Clips of this song were featured on the 1993 home video 'Visualize'.
Joe is pictured above with Ben E. backstage at the event.
Def Leppard with Ben E. King February 1988 Performance - 1993 Band Quotes
Rick Savage - "We were in San Remo for the San Remo Pop Festival in 1988."
Joe Elliott - "We were doing a kind of a three day festival in a place called San Remo in Italy."
Rick Savage - "Just by coincidence Ben E. King was actually performing there."
Joe Elliott - "The legendary Ben E. King was one of these acts and his manager came up and said Ben E. doesn't have a backing band. He's got an orchestra but there's no rhythm section."
Rick Savage - "And he said well do you want to play with us?. There was like a 25-piece orchestra behind us and just me Phil and Steve and we're doing Stand By Me and this is Ben E. King singing and it's like this is a bit weird this. This is something to tell my Father and Mother about you know it was great."
Joe Elliott- "So of course their thinking wow, Def Leppard and Ben E. King doing Stand By Me - which is what they were gonna do. I guess they just leapt at it you know. The way I look at it I guess is it's only fair that they get to work with a decent singer at least once."
- News Source - bbc.co.uk
- News Source - billboard.com
- News Source - rollingstone.com
- Def Leppard - Hysteria Tour 1987/1988
- Previous News - 30th April 2015