This is my favorite time of year.
The leaves change colors.
The smell of pumpkin spice fills the air.
And I get to revisit the Halloween movies of my youth!
One of the first Halloween films I remember (aside from It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown) is Ghostbusters.
That was back in the day when a movie soundtrack was key to a film’s success.
And the theme from Ghostbusters was a smash.
But what’s the story behind the Ray Parker Jr. hit?
I was curious…
In 1984, director Ivan Reitman had a problem.
He wanted a song to use in the middle of his new movie, Ghostbusters.
But couldn’t find anything he liked.
After being turned down by Huey Lewis and Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham, Reitman spoke to to singer Ray Parker Jr. about creating a song for the film.
“The first thing they said was, ‘I want it up-tempo, I want this, I want that,’” said Parker Jr. “And I said, ‘Oh that’s easy, I’m a musician, I can cut it.’”
“Then he says, ‘I want the word ‘Ghostbusters’ in it…’”
“I’m like, ‘How am I going to sing ‘Ghostbusters’ in a song? I’m ruined here, it’s never going to happen!’”
To make matters worse, Parker Jr. was given just two days to write the song.
He wrote the music quickly, but struggled to include the word ‘Ghostbusters’ in the song.
But constraints can help our creativity – and the constraints fuelled Parker Jr.
“It was 4 am, and I had about 4 or 5 hours left before the messenger service was going to come. Had I not turned in something, I would not have gotten any money.”
Parker Jr. took inspiration from a TV commercial he saw, and wrote the lyrics in the style of an advertising jingle. That led to the slogan-like refrain, ‘Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!’
“It sounds easy now because you've heard the song. But if somebody told you to write a song with the word 'Ghostbusters' in it, it's pretty difficult. That was the hard part – getting the title in the song.”
After the song was released, it was alleged that Parker Jr. may have taken inspiration from Huey Lewis, whose song I Want a New Drug was playing in the film clip that the studio sent to Parker Jr. (You can listen to a comparison of the two songs here.)
Lewis later sued Parker for plagiarism, and the two parties settled out of court.
But it wasn’t the similarities to I Want a New Drug that made Ray Parker Jr.’s Ghostbusters such a hit.
Parker wrote a catchy song, in a short timeframe, and managed to use the word ‘Ghostbusters’ in a way that worked.
And the music video was fun, too.
Parker's song earned him a Grammy, a number 1 video on MTV, a three-week spot at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and an Academy Award nomination.
It became one of the most successful movie anthems ever (and is still a Halloween standard).
The infectious hit also added the phrase “Who ya gonna call?” into the American English lexicon.
When asked if he ever gets tired of the song, Parker Jr. replied:
“That song is like me winning the lotto.”
“How could you get tired of looking at a winning lotto ticket?”
***Check out the music video below for a bit of 80s nostalgia. In addition to the Ghostbusters stars Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, and Harold Ramis, the music video includes appearances by Carly Simon, John Candy, George Wendt, Melissa Gilbert, Peter Falk, Teri Garr, Danny DeVito, Chevy Chase, Irene Cara and Ollie E. Brown.
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Keep Smiling - and Stay Curious!
-Beth