Actually ‘Stand By Me’ has roots in the 19th century. One of the earliest recorded versions comes from The Soul Stirrers, a close-harmony quartet of which Sam Cooke was a member. ‘Stand By Me Lord’, an undulating gospel ballad in 6/8 time, is, like so many gospel songs of the 1950s, as much about imagining a world beyond racist America as it is about God. The track was also covered by The Staple Singers, who released their version shortly after the Soul Stirrers in 1955, but it was Cooke’s version that made a lasting impression on Ben E. King.