Stand By Me

What started me off on this very popular, oft-covered hit is a new version recorded by Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and an Iranian superstar Andy Madadian to express solidarity with the people of Iran. As one of the producers, Don Was, states here,

This version of the old Ben E. King classic is not for sale – it was not meant to be on the Billboard charts or even manufactured as a CD…..it’s intended to be downloaded and shared by the Iranian people…to give voice to the sentiment that all people of the world stand together….the handwritten Farsi sign in the video translates to “we are one”.

I liked it – not that it brings anything new to the song, but Andy has a sweet voice, Jon is a superstar and Richie’s solo is nice. And after all, we are all suckers for this kind of global-solidarity-and-universal-human-spirit thing! I have shared the song (with a download link) and put up the video below.

I also decided to do a bit of personal research on this song and find covers as diverse as I could and I have shared the results below. You can listen to versions from U2 to Fugees! Its all happening below!

Download the Andy Madadian – Jon Bon Jovi – Richie Sambora version below:

Andy Madadian, Jon Bon Jovi & Richie Sambora – Stand By Me

This is the video from YouTube:

This song has been covered, as I mentioned above, by artists as diverse as Tracy Chapman, Ry Cooder and Fugees! But the very first version I ever heard, even before I heard the original, and hence my favourite, is the one by John Lennon – I found the video of that one on YouTube but embedding is disabled by EMI and so here’s the link.

John Lennon – Stand By Me

Next up, a small player where you can hear the original by Ben E. King, a folksy/rootsy version by Ry Cooder, a velvet-voiced Seal singing the same song, a hip-hop cover courtesy the Fugees, the song turned into a heartfelt ballad by the inimitable Tracy Chapman and also two bootlegs! The bootlegs are live versions of the song by U2 (featuring Bruce Springsteen) and… get this – Led Zeppelin!

And finally another global-solidarity-and-universal-human-spirit version which is quite unique – it features more than 35 musicians collaborating from all over the world! This is from the previously featured Playing For Change movement and is my second-most favourite version of Stand By Me!

Buy the song from Amazon