Ghost Bluster!

When there’s somethin’ strange in the neighborhood — somethin’ weird and it don’t look good — who ya’ gonna’ call? Ray Parker Junior, that's bloody who! ‘Twas on this day — August 13, 1984 — that Ghostbuster #4 Parker Jr. hit the top of the Billboard charts with his beatbox-rhymin’ “Ghostbusters!” theme. Students of ghostly invasion will remember that Parker Jr. was an eleventh hour addition to the crew of spirit expungers, joining Drs. Venkman, Stantz and Spengler in their crusade to rid the world of unexplained evil, which is to say, L. Ron Hubbard’s Church of Scientiology. (Haha.) The University paranormalists were unreliable exorcists early on, but tune-smithing ex-Marine Parker Jr. — and his catchphrase, “I ain’t ‘fraid a’ no ghosts” — helped propel the cable TV-friendly crew and their spunky receptionist to the front line in the battle against unseen spirits Zuul the Gatekeeper, Gozer of Gomeria and Brigham Young of Utah. (Haha, there I go again!) ‘Twas Parker Jr.'s fearlessness behind the wheel of the Ecto-1 that would “drive” the team’s success — saving our citizenry from certain doom — while his skill at bustin’ grooves at the dub board gave us the infectious, celebratory song (later appropriated by R&Beefcakey song-thief Hughie Lewis). Parker Jr. wasn’t ‘fraid a’ no ghosts, nor of constant radio airplay and the adoration of a finger-snapping populace. A doff of the Hazmat headgear to proto-plasmic groove-meister, Ray Parker Jr. Ghost-Busker!