The Righteous Brothers' Stand By (1966)

After the Spector-produced and Weil and Mann-written You've Lost That Loving Feeling, and after producing the Weil and Mann-written (You're my) Soul and Inspiration, Stand By was Bill Medley's attempt to do the whole thing himself: write, produce, sing w/o any help from Hetfield. It's the same (force 9 gale, melodramatic) song and performance as YLTLF and SAI *again* (possibly Medley was self-consciously completing a 'broken man' trilogy/triptych), only this time the leavee's lament is from an even more pathetic perspective: not a current-leavee but a past-leavee who's stuck in the past: 'I'm not her man, I'm just her standby/...So I'll pretend her love is mine'. Interestingly, Medley swallows many of his "her"s so that the key line ends up sounding like, 'I'm not *a* man, I'm just her standby' which is more self-lacerating and somewhat less pitiful.

Anyhow, the song/record is pretty terrific; an album track that crushes most nominal hit singles like Godzilla. But it isn't well known, and hasn't been on youtube up till now, so I hereby fill that gap. The song's pathetic perspective reminded me of Mad Men's Pete Campbell (brilliantly played by Vincent Kartheiser) esp. in the wonderful Season 5 episode, Signal 30, written by the late, great Frank Pierson and splendidly directed by John Slattery. In the ep. Pete flirts with a high school senior (Amanda Bauer) in Drivers' Ed. and gets punched out by Lane. Signal 30 is set in 1966, the year when the album Stand By appeared on was released.
---------------------------------------------------
There she goes
Walking with him
Wearing the smile she wore
When she used to be mine

But I know that she'll
Come to my side
The minute he
Tells her goodbye

But my heart won't let
Me forget
That I'm just her standby
For when he's gone
And even though I know
It's wrong

I can pretend
That her love is mine
I can pretend she is there
All the time

But it breaks my heart
To know that I'm
Not her man
I'm just her standby

I know I'm a fool
But I don't care
My heart grows so cold when she's gone
But so warm when she's there

I'd rather be a fool
And share her love
Than to be a man
Who's not involved at all [???]

So I will pretend
That her love is mine
I can pretend she is there
All the time

But it breaks my heart
To know that I'm
Not her man
I'm just her standby.