Ben (song)

Infobox Single
Name = Ben


Artist = Michael Jackson
from Album = Ben
B-side =
Released = July 12, 1972
Format =
Recorded = 1972
Genre = Pop-Rock/R&B
Length =
Label = Motown
Writer = Don Black and Walter Scharf
Producer = The Corporation: Freddie Perren, Alphonzo Mizell, Deke Richards and Berry Gordy, Jr
Last single = "Ain't No Sunshine"
(1972)
This single = "Ben"
(1972)
Next single = "With a Child's Heart"
(1973)
Misc =

"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. pop chart. It also reached number-one on the Australian pop chart, spending eight weeks at the top spot. The song also later reached a peak of number seven on the British pop chart.

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.

Cultural references

* 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 ever 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.
* Kipp Lennon, who performed the singing part of Michael Jackson's character on "The Simpsons" , sang "Ben" to Homer Simpson in the episode "Stark Raving Dad".
* 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' character at the wedding of his brother, Ben, and backed by a gay men's chorus.
* British singer Connie Talbot covered the song for her album, "Over The Rainbow"
* The song was covered in 2003 by Crispin Glover, for the remake of the prequel to the film "Ben", "Willard". The music video for the song is included on the DVD.
* Another cover of "Ben" was featured on the 2nd single of an up-and-coming Japanese singer, Stephanie, entitled "because of you".
* The song was spoofed in the television show "The Wayans Bros." when it was sung by Marlon Wayans about his rat named "Rufus".
*The song was sang by 9 year old autistic boy David Militello on the third season of "America's Got Talent".
* In a second season episode of the North American version of "Queer as Folk", Michael Novotny sings the opening lines to this song at a bar on karaoke night to his love interest, Ben Bruckner.
* 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 covered in 1990 from Silvy Melody at the Vlaamse showbizz TV Show De Kinderacademie.