GLAY -- BE WITH YOU

I remember watching at least some of a particular Fuji-TV drama in the late 1990s titled "Tabloid" which featured an intrepid reporter played by Takako Tokiwa（常盤貴子）who gets unceremoniously dumped from a big newspaper into a cheap rag for delving a little too much into the sordid goings-on of an official at the Ministry of Finance. The show did the usual "fish-out-of-water" hijinks for poor Tokiwa but in the course of the series, she manages to latch onto a juicy story involving a chef being accused of murder played by Hiroyuki Sanada (真田広之...who has since gone Hollywood).

There is not much that I remember from "Tabloid" outside of the large number of famous actors populating the show, but there is the theme song that was performed by GLAY, "BE WITH YOU". Released in November 1998 as the band's 15th single, the song was more in the pop-rock vein of things with guitarist TAKURO taking care of words and music. From what I could understand from the lyrics, the song seems to be about making things right again between a couple. Perhaps the same could be said about the characters played by Tokiwa and Sanada, although in the show, it's more about making things right about their own individual lives.

"BE WITH YOU" hit No. 1 for 2 consecutive weeks and ultimately became the 8th-ranked single of 1999, breaking the million barrier.  It was also a track on GLAY's 5th original album, "Heavy Gauge" from October 1999. As well, it hit No. 1 and was also the No. 8 album of the year, selling more than 2 million copies.