Parenting & Family Quote by Ben E. King

There’s a quiet flex buried in Ben E. King’s modest phrasing: “Of course” signals inevitability, like the outcome should have been obvious all along, even if the industry didn’t treat it that way. He’s talking about the strange afterlife of a hit - not just being heard, but being re-attributed. In pop culture, songs routinely outlive their makers; a track becomes a floating artifact, detached from the human name behind it. King is naming the moment that gets reversed.

The context is the long arc of “Stand by Me,” a song that kept resurfacing through covers, radio cycles, and especially film/TV placements that introduced it to audiences who weren’t born when it first charted. Younger listeners often meet classics as mood or soundtrack first, authorship second. King’s intent is practical and personal: reclaim credit in a culture that loves nostalgia but forgets labor.

The subtext is about power. Recognition isn’t just ego; it’s leverage - for bookings, royalties, interviews, legacy. “Associated with the song” is a careful way of saying: I didn’t just benefit from the song’s revival; I benefited from being reattached to it. That “tremendous lift” isn’t mystical inspiration, it’s the tangible currency of name recognition arriving late, when it should have been baked in from the start.

It also reads as a gentle indictment of the music ecosystem: the public can memorize a chorus faster than it can remember a creator. King’s satisfaction lands because it’s earned, and because it reveals how rare it is for history to circle back and say the artist’s name out loud.