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Permalink Reply by Jason H on February 28, 2025 at 5:42pm

I would usually put someone like this in random for music but I know of MANY ghostbuster collectors who need to know of his contributions to the original film. Ive ran into many completist collectors who absolutely need to find this info which would always be buried in the random thread

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Permalink Reply by Jason H on February 28, 2025 at 6:24pm

Just in case Facebook ever looses this info, here is a copy. Very interesting stuff for Ghostbusters fans...

Martin Page:

'Throwback Thursday - Ray Parker Jr. and GHOSTBUSTERS'

With the new Ghostbusters movie out - it reminded me of my first real taste of the music business in Los Angeles back in 1984. Q.Feel (myself and Brian Fairweather), had just arrived in LA ... and within two weeks of being there, we were playing on Ray Parker's Ghostbusters! That in itself is a supernatural occurrence - here we were in town because of our band's single 'Dancing in Heaven' which was all over the radio on the west coast .. and low and behold, we were suddenly session musicians on a smash number one single - my start in LA was certainly explosive. Brian and I had met Diane Poncher - now my manager - who was then co/managing Ray Parker - and it was she who brought us to the attention of Ray.

Ray Parker and his band Raydio were big favorites of both Brian and I - we loved their perfect blend of pop sensibility and soul. Even our publisher back in England - who didn't want us to travel to LA saying it was a waste of time ... had early on in our association with them - told us to study Ray Parker and Raydio, saying that this is the epitome of commercial fine songwriting. So you can imagine how they felt when they learned that we were in the studio with Ray ... Shocked I'm sure .... Supernatural luck !!!

Ray Parker wanted to update his sound - he was fascinated by the 'New Wave' music that was dominating the U.S. Airwaves. Diane told Ray that he should check out these two new kids from England who had their finger on the pulse of the new tech sound ... Ray liked 'Dancing in Heaven' and said 'great bring them over to my studio'. His studio was called 'Ameraycan Studios' on Lankershim Blvd in LA - a lovely little hideaway which had produced all those great Raydio singles - like 'Jack and Jill'.

We thought we were there just to meet and chat with Ray - but he had other ideas.

At that time 'Owner of a Lonely Heart' by Yes was a big big hit - and Trevor Horn's production of the track really appealed to Ray. He told us that he really loved the new English sound - the approach. And that he wanted both Brian and I to add our so called 'magic' to a new rough song he was working on. Brian had his trusty black Les Paul guitar with him ... And I had my little cheap Casio keyboard with me - they never left our sides - we were after all, songwriters hanging out in the capital of songs - LA.

He took us into his office - played us some music - after 'Owner of a Lonely Heart' ... he played us the track we were to play upon. I must say - it was extremely rough - just the drum track - and some crazy vocals - a ramshackle gang shouting and screaming something like 'Ghostbusters' ... What the f*** was this ???? Hard for us to make head nor tail of it. There was some guide bass synth that made us aware of the chords - a simple three chord trick really - an age old progression. But we didn't know that this was to be a movie song - and there was no lead vocal at this time. No leading guide melody. Of course the feel of the song was reminiscent of 'I Want a New Drug' by Huey Lewis and 'Pop Music' by M. We'll leave it that ..... Wink Wink!

Brian emulated that age old guitar figure - playing solid rock - and I contributed 'weird' keyboard sounds - Ray just said to me 'make it creepy - weird - new wave - as odd as you can'. So on my little cheap Casio synth I created 'wobbly fx lines and arpeggios and punctuated rhythm note stabs - you hear my 'creepy new wave romantic' sounds on the bridges of the track and the instrumental section. Both Brian and I had no idea what we're creating - and to be truthful we thought that this was a rather mundane average backing track we were playing on ... A little uninspired and pedestrian to be honest. We both wanted to be involved in a funky Raydio track - but - never the less we soldiered on 'in the dark'.

Then Ray just asked me to record lots of free form weird noises and effects - not on the track - but just on my own - little did I know that these ethereal 'noises' of mine would end up in the movie - used when Sigourney Weaver is sexually seduced by a ghost - hovering over her while she's in bed.

We loved meeting Ray - he was a cool cool operator - nothing phased him. A lovely guy. That he was an amazing guitarist who had added his genius to countless masterpieces - including Marvin Gaye's 'I Want You' album - was a fact he humbly kept under wraps.

His real love was songwriting and making irresistible pop records.
After the session we returned to tell Diane that it all went great - but that we had played on a very strange unfinished average backing track - with a bunch of crazy people shouting something like 'Ghostfuckers - or Ghostbusters' - something like that - and although we'd made a good impression on Ray it was a shame that we were involved in such a second rate track.

Well - within three to four weeks the song that we'd played on with the 'Mad Gang wailing about spooks and ghosts' had shot to number one in the U.S. Charts and was on its way to becoming a world wide smash. My God I thought ... I do like America !!!!

PS: Ray remained a friend and we all wrote together again - he was such a gentleman to recognize what Brian and I contributed to 'Ghostbusters' - he even sent us each plantinum albums to hang on our walls. Our first. Session musicians don't usually get that. Nice touch.

Ray Parker was a master at seeing the big picture - the commercial potential of a simple idea. He gave me a great introduction to the music biz in Los Angeles - My God I thought ... I do like America !!!! Anything's possible......

'Who Ya Gonna Call?'

Cheers Martin

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