Music Review: Ben E. King’s ‘Supernatural’

Ben E. King's Supernatural

Had this record arrived with a blank jacket and label, I certainly would not have guessed that its creator handled lead vocals for the Drifters during their best period (“This Magic Moment,” “Save the Last Dance for Me,” “There Goes My Baby,” etc.) and made a string of now-legendary solo singles hits during the early 1960s (“Stand by Me,” “Spanish Harlem,” “Don’t Play That Song,” “I (Who Have Nothing)”). The brilliance that permeated all of those recordings almost never surfaces on this album where drowned in lush production and cluttered backup, Ben E. King appears as a 1970s commercial soul shadow of his former self.

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