Friday, November 2, 2018

Who Ya Gonna Call?....Huey's Lawyers



Ghostbusters by Ray Parker Jr.

Released in May of 1984, this theme song to the hugely popular film was about as simple a pop song as you could possibly imagine and yet.....it ended up in court and made Huey Lewis a lot of money. Until it cost him a lot of money.

Ray Parker Jr. was approached to do the theme for the comedy film, Ghostbusters, after Lindsey Buckingham turned down the chance......and, apparently, after Huey Lewis was also approached. Ray only had about 3 days to write and record the song and he felt incredibly silly singing the word "Ghostbusters" so he got his girlfriend and her sisters to sing it for him. Listen closely....he doesn't say the word.

The song (and the film) was a huge hit and reached #1 in the US charts and stayed there for 3 weeks. It was nominated for Best Original Song at the Oscars that year but lost to Stevie Wonder's I Just Called To Say I Love You (why? I have no idea).

Right after the song was released, Huey Lewis sued Ray and Columbia Pictures because this song bears a striking resemblance to Huey's song I Want A New Drug and they settled for an undisclosed amount of money. The settlement was confidential.....until Huey mentioned it in a VH1, Behind The Music documentary and Ray sued Huey....and won. Easy come, easy go.

The video features clips from the film along with a ghost Ray haunting a young woman who lives in a creepy house that looks like its under a bridge and is just a bunch of neon windows inside. The word Ghostbuster is, again, not sung by Ray but by miscellaneous stars from the time of the films release, including: Chevy Chase, John Candy, Peter Falk and Terry Garr, among others.

To this day, anyone from the 80's, when asked, "Who ya gonna call?" will immediately say "GHOSTBUSTERS!!" Just don't tell anyone that Ray payed you and you'll be ok.

Please Enjoy....

 

1 comment:

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