Ben E. King -- Stand By Me

 

It was often the case that if I were doing an obituary article, it would be for someone in the Japanese music industry. I would wake up in the morning and catch NHK's "News at Nine" which broadcasts live some fourteen hours ahead of us here in Toronto when we're on Eastern Standard Time and then find out if a singer or other person within the industry had passed away. 

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This morning though, it was a little different. Via the CP24 news scroll, I found out much to my shock that actor-director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner had been found murdered in their home. Reiner was someone that I'd known since I was an elementary school student. The first time I was aware of him was when he had his memorable if brief guest part in an "Odd Couple" episode in the early 1970s when he was performing with the late Penny Marshall who'd had a recurring role on the show as Myrna Turner and who'd been married to Reiner at the time. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any clip of that scene on YouTube or elsewhere but I was able to find a photo that you can see above. Reiner is the man in the white dress shirt, third from the right standing next to Marshall who would become an A-lister director herself.

Reiner would gain further fame that decade as Mike Stivic, the hippie son-in-law of the irascible and conservative Archie Bunker played by Carroll O'Connor in the landmark CBS sitcom "All in the Family". Not surprisingly, sparks flew fast and furious between them.

I didn't watch a lot of "All in the Family" but I did remember catching one episode "Mike the Pacifist" in which Mike had to do something drastic while he and his wife were traveling on the scary New York subway.

Reiner would follow more heavily on the directing track rather than acting which he did on both TV and movies. His directing career was all for the big screen, and like Japanese songwriters Yu Aku（阿久悠）and Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, I often went "He did that?!" when I scrolled down Reiner's filmography as a director. He helmed "This is Spinal Tap", "When Harry Met Sally" and "The Princess Bride" among other flicks. I caught "A Few Good Men" and also "Stand By Me", the August 1986 coming-of-age movie mostly based in 1959 with some rough around the edges. There were stars in the making in that one including Wil Wheaton who would take on the role of Wesley Crusher in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" the following year and then Kiefer Sutherland who would become the Jack Bauer of "24" fame.

I remember when the movie came out, the old 1961 Ben E. King classic of the same name was unearthed as the main theme song to much acclaim. During the movie's run, "Stand By Me" got a lot of airplay on the radio and then as a music video starring King alongside at least some of the actors starring in the movie. When King's song was released in 1961, it hit No. 4 on US Billboard and even with its revival a quarter-century later, it returned to the Top 10 there at No. 9. In Canada, it did even better by hitting the top spot. Personally, I also remember "Stand By Me" as a favourite karaoke song in both Toronto and in Japan...not sung by me, of course. It deserved a better fate than that.

My condolences go out to almost all of Reiner's family, friends and many fans.

So for this special ROY, what was being released as music singles in Japan in the same month as "Stand By Me"?

1986 Omega Tribe -- Super Chance

Akemi Ishii -- Cha-Cha-Cha

Miho Nakayama -- Tsuiteru ne, Notteru ne（ツイてるねノッてるね）