Remembering Michael Jackson - Ben

When I was a kid, my Uncle Ben, Papa's younger brother, would play this song - a 45 - in his huge record player. To the younger kids now, a 45 was a record that contained only one song, and was played using a stereo with a stylus on it. It also had a B-side, although I didn't know which song was the B-side for this. If you want the record to repeat itself, Uncle Ben's sophisticated record player could do that! So Ben was played again and again until Uncle Ben wanted another song.

At that time, I didn't know that this song was about a rat! It was so simple and beautiful that the last thing you would connect it too would be a pet rat.