Caroll O'Connor's 1971 Performance Of All In The Family's Remembering You Is Heartbreaking Now

Those were the days, right? That's exactly what the opening theme song to that most beloved of '70s classic TV sitcoms, "All in the Family," says right in its lyrics. Sang by actors Carroll O'Connor (Archie Bunker) and Jean Stapleton (Edith Bunker), the song couldn't be a more thorough, satirical wringing of falsely rose-tinted nostalgia. But the theme song's title, "Those Were the Days," also rings absolutely, sincerely true about the show itself. They ring just as true as the show's closing song, which folks might not even know exists. And when considering the shocking and sudden death of "All in the Family" co-star, acclaimed filmmaker, and overall swell guy, Rob Reiner, who played Michael Stivic, this closing song really strikes a chord.

"All in the Family's" closing song, "Remembering You," really hits home, in large part, because it's sung by Carroll O'Connor himself. Or at least, it was sung by O'Connor once, in 1971, in a live performance on the "Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour." O'Connor didn't just sing the song; he also wrote its lyrics and gave it its title, "Remembering You." The theme, which is like a wistful, melancholic, but still mischievous piano rag, was written by composer Roger Kellaway, who accompanies O'Connor live during the 1971 performance in question. 

In light of Reiner's December 2025 death, the O'Connor-penned lyrics come across as strangely prescient, heart-wrenching, and even a bit eerie. As he sings: "Got a feelin' it's all over now / All over now, we're through / And tomorrow I'll be lonesome / Remembering You."

In his 1971 "Remembering You" performance, Carroll O'Connor looks very different from his tan-shirted character, Archie Bunker. He's decked out in a tux and speaks far more articulately than anyone might have expected if you only knew him as Bunker. He's not a singer, though, and it's impossible not to see glimmers of Archie Bunker in his eyes and demeanor when he's singing. But if anything, this adds to the authenticity of "Remembering You's" sentiments and lyrics, especially because O'Connor wrote the lyrics. Knowing that he, co-star Jean Stapleton, and now Rob Reiner would die in succession (2001, 2013, and 2025, respectively), transforms the song into a kind of elegy for the entire "All In the Family" cast. 

This is particularly true because O'Connor and Reiner's characters represented the whole, central thematic core of "All in the Family." O'Connor's Bunker was a conservative traditionalist who didn't go in for any of the hippie-dippie, "anti-American" stuff that Reiner's "Meathead," as Bunker called him, did. And, Meathead — Michael Stivic — ended up being Bunker's live-in son-in-law and husband to his daughter, Gloria Bunker-Stivic (Sally Struthers). This makes O'Connor's 1971 "Remembering You" performance just as strange as it is moving, seeing O'Connor sing out of character to an equally out of character, now-dead Reiner.

Nonetheless, we're fortunate to have a record of the performance to encapsulate the meaning that "All in the Family" had and has for its viewership. Fewer words could be so simply, yet accurately, sung than the ones that O'Connor chose for the closing to "All In the Family." Fewer words could also speak so truly to the feelings left in the wake of Reiner's death.