Ben (song)

"Ben" is a number-one hit song recorded by the teenaged Michael Jackson for the Motown label in 1972. The song, the theme of a 1972 film of the same name (the sequel to the 1971 killer rat movie Willard), spent one week at the top of the U.S. charts. It also reached number-one in Australia, spending eight weeks at the top spot. The song also later reached a peak of number seven in the United Kingdom.

The song became the first of thirteen number-one pop hits for Jackson in the United States and his first number-one as a solo artist.

Later included on Jackson's album of the same name, "Ben" won a Golden Globe for Best Song and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

In 1985, Marti Webb released a cover version of the song, which reached #5 in the UK charts, as a tribute to the late Ben Hardwick, a young liver transplant patient.

The song was also covered by Crispin Glover to coincide with the remake of Ben's prequel, Willard. The song is featured in a bizarre music video featuring Glover and R. Lee Ermey.

Trivia

The song was originally written for Donny Osmond, but he was on tour and unavailable when it was time to record the single, so the song was offered to Michael Jackson.
Though Jackson had already become the youngest artist to record a number-one ("I Want You Back" with his brothers, The Jackson 5, in 1970), "Ben" made him the third-youngest solo artist, at fourteen, to score a number-one hit single. Only Stevie Wonder, who was thirteen when "Fingertips, Pt. 2" went to number one, and Donny Osmond, who was months shy of his fourteenth birthday when "Go Away Little Girl" hit number one in 1971 were younger.
Jackson performed "Ben" in front of a live audience at the Academy Awards ceremony, where it was up for the Oscar for Best Original Song in 1973.
The song was once performed at a ballet competition, where performers danced to nothing but songs from Motown.
A short version of the song was featured in the Simpsons episode "Stark Raving Dad" in 1991, where Jackson guest-starred as a fat mental patient. However, due to contractual obligations with his record company, Jackson was not allowed to sing in the episode, with Kipp Lennon voicing his singing parts, which included short versions of "Billie Jean" and "Ben". Jackson is credited in the episode under the pseudonym of John Jay Smith.
The band Pearl Jam makes a reference to the song "Ben" on their 1993 album Vs. on the song "Rats", with the line "Ben, the two of us need look no more" repeated several times at the end the track.
It has also been covered by the Irish group Boyzone on their album A Different Beat.
The song was featured in the TV movie Wedding Wars, sung by John Stamos's character at the wedding of his brother, Ben, and backed by a gay men's chorus.

External links

Lyrics to "Ben"
Michael Jackson 'Ben' Collection - Jacksonstreet

Preceded by "Baby, Don't Get Hooked on Me" by Mac Davis	Billboard Hot 100 number-one single October 14 1972	Succeeded by "My Ding-a-Ling" by Chuck Berry

• • [ e] Michael Jackson singles

Got to Be There: "Got to Be There" • "Rockin' Robin" • "I Wanna Be Where You Are" • "Ain't No Sunshine"
Ben: "Ben"
Music and Me: "With a Child's Heart" • "Music and Me" • "Happy"
Forever, Michael: "We're Almost There" • "Just a Little Bit of You"
The Wiz: "Ease on Down the Road" (w/Diana Ross) • "You Can't Win (Pt. 1)" • "A Brand New Day" (w/Diana Ross)
Off the Wall: "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" • "Rock With You" • "Off the Wall" • "She's out of My Life" • "Girlfriend"
One Day in Your Life: "One Day in Your Life"
Thriller: "The Girl Is Mine" (w/Paul McCartney) • "Billie Jean" • "Beat It" • "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"
"Human Nature" • "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" • "Thriller"
Farewell My Summer Love: "Farewell My Summer Love" / "Girl You're So Together"
Bad: "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" (w/Siedah Garrett) • "Bad" • "The Way You Make Me Feel" • "Man in the Mirror"
"Dirty Diana" • "Another Part of Me" • "Smooth Criminal" • "Leave Me Alone" • "Liberian Girl"
Dangerous: "Black or White" • "Remember the Time" • "In the Closet" • "Jam" • "Who Is It"
"Give In to Me" • "Heal the World" • "Will You Be There" • "Gone Too Soon"
HIStory: "Scream/Childhood" • "You Are Not Alone" • "Earth Song" • "They Don't Care About Us" • "Stranger in Moscow"
: "Blood on the Dance Floor" • "HIStory/Ghosts"
Invincible: "You Rock My World" • "Cry" • "Butterflies"
Number Ones: "One More Chance"
Other collaborations: "Somebody's Watching Me" (w/Rockwell) • "Say Say Say" (w/Paul McCartney) • "Get It" (w/ Stevie Wonder) • "Why" (w/ 3T)

In music, a single is a short recording of one or more separate tracks. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats.

Vinyl singles consist of one or more tracks on a traditional gramophone record.

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Michael Joseph Jackson (born August 29, 1958), commonly known as MJ^[1] as well as "The King of Pop",^[2] is an American musician, entertainer, and pop icon whose successful career and controversial personal life have been a part of pop culture for
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Ben
(1972) A Collection Of Michael Jackson's Oldies
(1972)

Ben was the second full-length solo album by teenage pop-soul music phenomenon Michael Jackson.
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-1972- 1973 ^. 1974 ^. 1975 1976 ^. 1977 ^. 1978 ^. 1979 ^. 1980 ^. 1981 ^.
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A music genre is a term that describes the process of dividing popular music into categories. Some treat the terms genre and style as the same, and state that genre should be defined as pieces of music that share a certain style or "basic musical language.
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For other uses, see Pop rock (disambiguation).

Pop rock is a subgenre of rock music that uses "catchy" pop style, with light lyrics over top of "guitar-based" songs.
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Rhythm and blues (also known as R&B or RnB) is a popular music genre combining jazz, gospel, and blues influences, first performed by African American artists.
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In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. In everyday usage, a record label is also a company that manages such brands and trademarks; coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution,
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Motown Records, also known as Tamla-Motown outside of the United States, is a record label originally based out of Detroit, Michigan ("Motor City", hence mo(tor)town), from where it achieved widespread international success.
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A songwriter is someone who writes the lyrics to songs, the musical composition or melody to songs, or both. That is to say, a songwriter is a lyricist, a composer, or both.
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Don Black OBE (born June 21, 1938) is an English lyricist. His works have included numerous musicals, movie themes and hit songs. He began his music business career as an office boy with a music publishing firm, and later worked as a song-plugger.
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Walter Scharf (1 August 1910 - 24 February 2003) was an American film composer.

Born in New York, he was the son of Yiddish theatre comic Bessie Zwerling. While in his 20s, he was one of the orchestrators for George Gershwin's Broadway musical Girl Crazy
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In the music industry, a record producer (or music producer) has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, organizing and scheduling production budget and resources, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering
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The Corporation™ was a collection of songwriters and record producers assembled in 1969 by Motown label head Berry Gordy to create hit records for the label's new act, The Jackson 5.
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Frederick "Freddie" Perren (May 15, 1943 – December 16 2004) was an American songwriter, record producer, arranger, and orchestra conductor.

He is notable for being a member of The Corporation™, a hitmaking production team which included Fonce Mizell, Deke
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Alphonso "Fonce" Mizell is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. Mizell started out as a member of The Corporation™, the hitmaking production team that wrote and produced all The Jackson 5's essential early hits, including "I Want You Back", "ABC", "The Love
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Deke Richards, also known as Dennis Lussier, is a songwriter and record producer, one of many white musicians/songwriters who were affiliated with Motown. He is notable for being a member of The Corporation™, a hitmaking production team that wrote and produced The Jackson 5's
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Berry Gordy, Jr. (b. November 28 1929, Detroit, Michigan) is an American record producer, and the founder of the Motown record label and its many subsidiaries.

Biography

Early years

Berry Gordy, Jr.
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__NOEDITSECTION__ A record chart, also known as a music chart, is a method of ranking music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of record charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40.
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Motto
"In God We Trust" (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum" ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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Anthem
Advance Australia Fair ^[1]

Capital Canberra

Largest city Sydney
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B-side(s) "Harlem"
Released September, 1971
Format 7" Record
Genre Soul, R&B
Label Sussex Records
Writer(s) Bill Withers
Producer(s) Booker T. Jones
Peak chart positions

#3 U.S. Pop
#6 U.S.

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A-side(s) "With a Child's Heart"
B-side(s) "Morning Glow"
Released 1973
Format 7", 12"
Recorded 1971
Genre Pop
Label Motown Records
Writer(s) Basemore / Henry Cosby / Sylvia Moy
Producer(s)
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Adolescence is a transitional stage of human development that occurs between childhood and adulthood. Adolescent humans go through puberty, the process of sexual maturation.
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-1972- 1973 ^. 1974 ^. 1975 1976 ^. 1977 ^. 1978 ^. 1979 ^. 1980 ^. 1981 ^.
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All Movie Guide profile
|/ IMDb profile
Ben is a 1972 film about a young boy (played by Lee H. Montgomery) and his pet rat, Ben. This film is a sequel to the 1971 film Willard.
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-1971- 1972 1973 1974 1975 ^. 1976 ^. 1977 ^. 1978 ^. 1979 ^. 1980 ^. 1981

In home video: 1968 1969 1970 -1971- 1972 1973 1974
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Ben (song)

Information about Ben (song)

Trivia

External links

Biography

Early years