“Stand By Me” by Ben E. King is one of the greatest songs ever written about companionship, support, steadiness, and the human need for someone to be there beside you when everything around you seems to tremble. It is soul, it is R&B, it is a pop standard, it is a song born out of church experience, transformed into a secular ballad, passed from generation to generation, and in the end it became something almost bigger than its own name. It was released in 1961 and from that point on it very quickly stopped being just a hit. It became a promise. It became an oath. It became shelter.