Ghostbusters: Afterlife injected new life into the ‘80s franchise, and now that we know a sequel is on the way, it seems the Ghostbusters franchise's future in Hollywood is secure for now. While it seems enough people liked it for Sony to go ahead with the sequel, some found Afterlife to be a mixed bag. Among the people who haven't seen the movie at all is singer Ray Parker Jr., who sang the original Ghostbusters theme song, and he recently revealed his confusion about one decision these movies keep making.
I spoke to Ray Parker Jr. ahead of his elimination episode of The Masked Singer, and given his ties to the Ghostbusters franchise, I had to know his thoughts on the latest installment’s remix of his classic song. I was surprised to learn that he hadn’t seen the movie and learned about his belief the franchise has tried to bury his contribution over the years:
It seems like after the original Ghostbusters film that they’ve been trying to bury the song. They don’t really use the song like I thought they were going to use it. I would think they would use it at the beginning or like the library scene to get the crowd up and cheering the song, but for some reason, they keep trying to get some–they keep wanting some new music. So, I’m not sure.
Ray Parker Jr. is confused with how his song has been used over the years and seems to think the Ghostbusters franchise is trying to find new music to replace his chart-topping classic. The singer didn’t indicate specifically if this is why he hadn’t checked out Afterlife yet, but one could speculate his belief that his song’s impact is being minimized could definitely play into him skipping out on seeing it.
It’s hard to imagine that there are people in the world who know Ghostbusters and don’t know the original song, but if the song is continually buried and minimized, that could one day be the case. I mentioned to Ray Parker Jr. how I felt it’d be hard to disconnect the two because the song is one of the first things that comes to mind when I hear the franchise, and he brought up an interesting point:
Yeah, that’s what people tell me. But if you think about it, the song is only in its original form up front in the very first Ghostbusters film in ‘84. After that, they’ve been trying not to use the song.
Since the original Ghostbusters, there have been instances where other artists were brought in to give their own spin on the iconic Ray Parker Jr. Song. Run DMC performed a version of the song tied to the original sequel, which even featured a music video with the cast. Fallout Boy and Missy Elliott collaborated on a version of the song in the 2016 version, which was heavily panned.
As previously mentioned, the Afterlife version was at the forefront of the latest Ghostbusters movie, so it’s not hard to see why Ray Parker Jr. might be interested in other upcoming movies rather than the one he’s tied to. Perhaps with the sequel on the way, there’s an opportunity for the studio to reach out to the singer and find a way to get the original classic back in front again.
You’ll need a Starz subscription to watch Ghostbusters: Afterlife currently, or a subscription to AMC+ to check out the original. Of course, you can find the original theme song just about anywhere there’s music, and even if Halloween is behind us, there’s never really a bad time to play it!
