[caption id=“attachment_8756” align=“alignright” width=“337”] Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Jerry O’Connell and Corey Feldman in Stand by Me (1986)[/caption]

Many of us remember with fondness the movie with the same title as that fantastic piece of music, Stand by Me (released in April, 1961). The film premiered in 1986, and kind of gave that song to a whole new generation of music lovers!

The movie is a coming of age story for four teenage boys, played by Wil Wheaton (as Gordie), River Phoenix (Chris), Jerry O’Connell (Vern) and Corey Feldman (Teddy). If you haven’t seen it yet, add it to your bucket list!

Here is the cast of Stand by Me, directed by Rob Reiner. The four boys given in bold.
1961-0317 Casey Siemaszko* as Billy Tessio, Vern’s older brother
1966-0628 John Cusack* as Denny Lachance, Gordon’s older brother
1966-1221 Kiefer Sutherland* as gang leader John “Ace” Merrill
1970-0823 River Phoenix* as Christopher “Chris” Chambers – actor from Madras, OR USA (1993/23)
1971-0716 Corey Feldman* as Teddy Duchamp - actor/singer from Reseda, CA
1972-0729 Wil Wheaton* as the 12-year old Gordon “Gordie” Lachance - actor/voice actor/blogger – Burbank, CA
1974-0217 Jerry O’Connell* as Vern Tessio - actor/voice actor/director from Manhattan, NY

And then, the music! Stand by Me with lyrics. Co-composed (together with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller) and sung by the soul and R&B singer and record producer Ben E. King:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTCfQ6Bb8QE

And here’s another take on the song, a very international one as you can see. Featuring musicians around the world recorded by the Playing For Change team during their travels. “This song continues to remind us that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people.” (Guyanese Online).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us-TVg40ExM

Updated 24.5.2021