Bob Summers (1943-2026)

A brief rant before I get into the obituary proper: why is it that news of people passing away comes so late from time to time? Make-up maestro Screaming Mad George apparently passed away in February of this year, but his family needed time to grieve before making this news widely known. I suppose they had their reasons, but I’m sure his fans and former collaborators felt a little put out in having this news sprung on them. I’m sure it wasn't the same case with composer Bob Summers who - according to a YouTube comment! - passed away on August 2nd, but it seems like there’s so much news being thrown at people that important bits like this can’t help but get lost in the shuffle. (It’s a cruel joke of fate that so many talented, life-enriching 80-something individuals have shuffled off this coil in the last few weeks, yet the most life-enriching - as in the one who will enrich us all when he’s finally dead - continues to linger.)

A self-taught musician, arranger and performer whose ultimate film and TV credits ranged from “The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams” to The Boogens, One Dark Night, Eliminators and something called The Malibu Bikini Shop. A Merchant-Ivory film, no doubt. (As a Richard Band fan, I also knew Summers for his orchestration work on Metalstorm: the Destruction of Jared-Syn.) However, for a generation of people, one credit looms largest of all.

As a 14-year-old discovering “Sailor Moon”, I was struck by a number of elements: the animation (much faster than anything I had experienced from American shows), the cheesy lines (part and parcel, one supposes, of any anime dub, but these went up to eleven) and “the boom anime babes that make me think the wrong thing” (thank you, Barenaked Ladies), but what stuck with me most - and what continues to even three decades later - is the music. The main theme was taken directly from the original anime as I would come to learn with the far more faithful - but not as involving - Viz dub*, but Summers’ embellishments and original compositions really made the underscoring for that show shine. (Even people who hated the dub give props to the music. Enough said.)

Whether in a high-energy, go-getter setting for Serena running late for school, a lush waltz for the dressier moments or a tense, creepy variation for the suggestion of a Negaverse monster, Summers clearly had fun playing with the original melody. His original compositions were quite enjoyable, as well, from the heroic fanfare for Tuxedo Mask (a marked improvement on the character’s theme in the original anime) to the mysterioso idea for Luna and the mystical, Arabic-flavored melody for the Moonlight Knight. When he released the tracks a few years ago, it was like being transported back to high school.

Especially for 90s kids, it goes without saying that he will be missed.

* - I can think of no better comparison than the 1995 and 2021 film adaptations of Mortal Kombat. Sure, the newer one is more faithful to the original source material, but that doesn’t always make for the most gripping entertainment. Sometimes, screwing around with the original yields better results.