Carolina Quotes
I'm not one of those regimented-type recording persons where I know exactly what to do at each particular time in a song. I just close my eyes and go for it.
Ben E. King Carolinian
Source
Interview with Terry Gross, Fresh Air, NPR, 1988; rebroadcast May 8, 2015
- form
- interview
- work
- Fresh Air interview
- year
- 1988
Cite this record
“I'm not one of those regimented-type recording persons where…” Ben E. King. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-B12AB0BC86. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/b12ab0bc86
More from Ben E. King
I was born in Henderson, N.C., so I wasn't familiar with the street singing thing until I came to New York, which I was about 11 years old when my parents first moved to New York. And I heard about it and then gradually, by being in the streets of Harlem, I walked around and sure enough bumped into different little guys singing and doo-wopping on the stoops and stuff like that.
And it was his determination and his I guess feeling that I had something in my voice that he insisted that I stay in the business. And he was the one still I find very responsible for me still being here now. And I hold him very near and dear.
When you grow older, your attitude change, and you tend to not be as involved and not as - you don't throw your whole self into songs. I listen to myself when I was singing years ago, and I prefer my performance much more than I do today.