Ray Parker Jr. hits No.1 in 1984 with “Ghostbusters”, the theme song from the Ivan Reitman blockbuster

Despite “Ghostbusters” remaining one of the 1980’s biggest worldwide hits and defining songs, it was wrapped in plagiarism controversy

Ray Parker Jr. hits No.1 in 1984 with “Ghostbusters”, the theme song from the Ivan Reitman blockbuster



It’s one of the 1980’s defining songs and was a major smash hit worldwide, “Ghostbusters”, by Ray Parker Jr., was released in May 1984. The song was composed to be used as the theme for the blockbuster movie “Ghostbusters”, and it end up gathering as much success as the movie itself. Parker has stated that he was inspired to write the song as a pseudo-advertising jingle. But soon after the popularity of the song started to increase, Huey Lewis stepped in and sued Columbia Pictures and Ray Parker Jr. for copyright infringement. Earlier, in January 1984, Huey Lewis had released the song “I Want a New Drug” with the Huey Lewis and The News, which is indeed very similar to “Ghostbusters”. In fact, he had been approached by Columbia to compose the theme song for the movie “Ghostbusters” but declined. The three parties settled out of court which remained confidential until 2001, when Lewis commented on the payment publicly, leading Ray Parker Jr. to sue him for breaching confidentiality. Messy indeed, however, all the controversy didn’t stop back in 1984 the song to be nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards but lost to Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called to Say I Love You”, that also had been a major worldwide hit from the movie “The Woman in Red”. the highly rotated and aired music video of “Ghostbusters” was directed by the same director as the movie, Ivan Reitman, and it features cameos from several celebrities of the day, including Chevy Chase, Irene Cara, John Candy, Melissa Gilbert, Danny DeVito, Carly Simon and Peter Falk among many others. It ends with Parker and the stars of the film, in full Ghostbuster costume, dancing down the streets of New York City.



Look back at the 1984 music video “Ghostbusters” by Ray Parker Jr.



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