Ghostbusters" is a 1984 song recorded by Ray Parker, Jr. as the theme to the film of the same name starring Bill Murray andDan Aykroyd. It hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on August 11 in 1984, and stayed there for three weeks. It also peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart on 16 September 1984, where it stayed for three weeks. The song is performed in the key of B major.
It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song, but lost to Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called to Say I Love You".
According to Parker, he was approached by the film's producers to create a theme song for the film. Unfortunately, he only had a few days to do so and the film's title seemed impossible to include in any lyrics. However, when watching television late at night, Parker saw a cheap commercial for a local service that reminded him that the film had a similar commercial featured for the fictional business. This inspired him to write the song as a pseudo-advertising jingle that the business could have commissioned as a promotion. The line "I ain't scared of no ghosts" came from a 1937 Mickey Mouse short, Lonesome Ghosts.
Parker was later the defendant in a copyright-infringement lawsuit which claimed "Ghostbusters" was too similar in musical structure to "I Want a New Drug", written and performed by Huey Lewis and the News (more specifically, the guitar riff which runs through the song). "I Want a New Drug" was a U.S. top-ten hit earlier the same year. The two parties settled out of court. Details of the settlement (specifically, that Parker paid Lewis a settlement) were confidential until 2001, when Lewis commented on the payment in an episode of VH1's Behind the Music. Parker subsequently sued Lewis for breaching confidentiality; the lawsuit is ongoing.[1] Ironically, Lewis had at one point been asked to record a theme song for the movie, but turned it down for other commitments.[citation needed]
In later years, AutoNation adopted the theme for their advertising campaign. In the United Kingdom, the song is parodied with Parker himself being featured in a commercial advertising direct enquiries line 118 118.
Lindsey Buckingham claims to have been approached to write the Ghostbusters theme based on his successful contribution to Harold Ramis's National Lampoon's Vacation(the song "Holiday Road"). He turned down the opportunity as he didn't want to be known as a soundtrack artist. He mentions this on the "Words & Music" interview disk.
A music video for the song featured a young woman, played by Cindy Harrell, who was being haunted by a ghost portrayed by Parker, roaming a nearly all-black house interior with vibrant neon designs outlining the sparse architectural and industrial features. It also contained footage from the film Ghostbusters, and featured cameos from many celebrities of the day, including Chevy Chase, Irene Cara, John Candy, Melissa Gilbert, Nickolas Ashford, Jeffrey Tambor, George Wendt, Al Franken, Danny DeVito, Carly Simon, Peter Falk, Teri Garr and Casey Kasem; all of whom exclaim the "Ghostbusters!" line of the song when shown.
The video concludes with Parker and the stars of the film, in full Ghostbuster costume, dancing down the streets of New York City. The Ghostbusters also performed the similar dance in the closing credits to the Real Ghostbusters cartoon series as well as in a trailer for the 2009 Ghostbusters video game.
No comments:
Post a Comment