SoundTreks | Ghostbusters

As of June 23rd, the world was finally granted access to the new title song for the new Ghostbusters film, due in theaters on July 15th. The new song was performed by Fall Out Boy, and was largely a high-octane, ultra-produced version of the Ray Parker, Jr. song from the 1984 Ghostbusters. If you haven’t heard it, it’s available on YouTube, where it has accrued nearly four million hits in less than four days. The general consensus it, it seems, one of utter ire. Just about everything to do with the 2016 Ghostbusters film seems to elicit nothing but ire. I, personally, withold judgment until an actual viewing of the film. 

“Who you gonna call?” is dated. Shouldn’t the new slogan be something along the lines of “Whose app are you doing to download?”

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But since the internet is in its usual auto-outraged tizzy over the new Ghostbusters, and the original is so often lionized and canonized and generally praised as one of the most important films of a generation, SoundTreks will take this particular opportunity to look back at the entire soundtrack of the 1984 original. Not everything about Ghostbusters, we may find, is as infallible as we remember, and this soundtrack record, while an enormous hit, is not only rarely discussed anymore, but may prove to be the weakest link in the Ghostbusters machine. Well, and maybe some of those weird-ass toys. 

Track 1. “Ghostbusters” – Ray Parker, Jr.

There are few people who were alive in 1984 who didn’t listen to Ray Parker, Jr.’s “Ghostbusters” incessantly for several years at a stretch. It stayed at #1 on the Billboard charts for three straight weeks, was nominated for an Academy Award, and its music video featured cameos by just about every well-known comedian at the time. This song was a tidal wave that has, to this day, left parts of popular culture saturated. Yes, Ray Parker Jr. was sued by Huey Lewis for ripping off the very, very similar riff from his hit song “I Want a New Drug,” and the matter was settled out of court. Mashups reuniting the two are common. Yes, Lewis was asked to write the song and declined. 

But let us take a step back and analyze the song with fresh ears, if that’s even possible. How does the song hold up? As it turns out, “Ghostbusters” is still a nice, comforting pop earworm, and is easily consumed under most circumstances. It’s also, if we’re honest with ourselves, really obnoxious. Ray Parker, Jr.’s vocals are funky and nice, and the bassline is good for dancing. This is a great sythny song, perfect for dancing. There’s a reason it’s always included on cheap-o Halloween compilation CDs. 

But the backing chorus that constantly screams the title, with no modulation throughout the song, is actually more evocative of pep rallies and annoying marching band performances than of dance pop. The biggest, most notable detail of the song is actually the weakest element. The breakdowns are great, the instrumentals are impeccable, and I will never not adore that spooky opening. But there are questionable, noisy elements that play as childish and make the song seem immature. It’s easy for little kids. Is it a great song? Let’s debate that. 

An odd detail: In Ghostbusters II, characters in the film dance to this song. Which means it exists in the universe of Ghostbusters. 

Track 2. “Cleanin’ Up the Town” – The BusBoys

Also composed for the film, The BusBoys’ “Cleanin’ Up the Town” is legitimate, late-era rockabilly. As was once observed in the SoundTreks dissection of the soundtrack to Streets of Fire, there was, in the 1980s, a strange cultural overlap between the present day and the rockabilly iconography of the 1950s. So 1980s films and TV shows often featured 1950s greasers and 1950s music. The BusBoys were comfortably riding the crest of that wave with hits like this one, and, more notably, “The Boys Are Back in Town,” featured prominently in Walter Hill’s 48 Hrs.. 

It’s a jarring song to follow the synth of the title song, but it’s upbeat, joyous, and fun. It doesn’t have the edge of authentic vintage rockabilly (which has been compared to punk), but it has a lot of energy, and that’s enough. 

Track 3. “Savin’ the Day” – Alessi Brothers

I don’t know what happened to the Alessi Brothers, do you? I only just learned that they are still making music. Their last album dropped in 2013, and it can be purchased from their charmingly dated website. “Savin’ the Day” was only a hit by association, then, and is, one might find, not necessarily representative of the Alessi Brothers’ sound. They weren’t a huge pop act, and they couldn’t possibly follow this song with anything notable, unless they continued to contribute to soundtrack records (see Baha Men for that phenomenon in action). “Savin’ the Day” is a blandly inspirational New Wave song with a good bassline, and some fun vocal work, but little else. If it hadn’t been in Ghostbusters, you likely wouldn’t have given it a second thought. 

Track 4. “In the Name of Love” – Thompson Twins

The Alessi Bros. were twins. Thompson Twins are not twins. 

“In the Name of Love” is an awesome New Wave song from the time when New Wave had tipped forcefully into the pop mainstream. This song is catchy, musically complex, has great lyrics, and is a great display of defiant musicianship. Weirdly, the chorus is the flattest part of the song. 

Here’s something I must admit: Although I have seen Ivan Reitman’s Ghostbusters perhaps over 30 times, I don’t remember hearing this song in the movie. Was it something Louis Tully listened to at his party? Would Louis have been cool enough to listen to Thompson Twins in 1984? This song is undeniably cool, but it was swallowed by the movie. 

Track 5. “I Can Wait Forever” – Air Supply

I’m noticing that most of the songs on the record do not reflect the tone of Ghostbusters one bit. I’ve never been a fan of tender pop ballads of this ilk, as they tend to use sappy vocals, boring instrumentation, and vague lyrics in place of real passion or anything approaching genuine emotion. This ballad, by one of the more heavily mocked bands of the 1980s, is boring and kind of awful. I’d rather listen to Styx’s “Lady” or “Sister Christian.” This is not demonstrative or loving or interesting. I kind of hate it. Check that. I really hate it. 

I also can’t point to the scene in Ghostbusters where it plays. And while Ghostbusters did feature a romance (between Peter and Dana), their love was never depicted as a barn-burning love for the ages, as this song might have you believe. What was this song meant to do in a film like Ghostbusters? Besides make it worse? In another era, this could only ever play as ironic. The same way “Angel of the Morning” did in Deadpool. 

Track 6. “Hot Night” – Laura Branigan

This was 1984, which may have been right in the center of the synth explosion. Ghostbusters, without trying then, would have to feature a lot of synth-heavy dance pop. Just because that’s what was around. Laura Branigan was making energetic synth tunes at the time, which made her ripe for the plucking. Branigan made frequent appearances on soundtrack records, including Flashdance and Baywatch, so her sound permeated a lot of pop culture of a long time. You may not have owned one of her records, but she was everywhere in the 1980s, from Adult Contemporary charts to gay nightclubs. 

Laura Branigan’s voice is enormous, and while “Hot Night” is nondescript in a 1980s pop way – it’s a big ol’ dumb Steinman-esque screamer – it still belies Branigan’s deeper talents. Branigan died in 2004. Let’s appreciate the time she bumped up against us. 

Track 7. “Magic” – Mick Smiley

Mick Smiley wrote Lita Ford’s “Kiss Me Deadly.”

“Magic” appeared in Ghostbusters, briefly, as ghosts were released, en masse, into New York. The portion of the song used (from about 2 1/2 minutes into the single) is eerie and spooky and perfect for the moment. It’s cool, but menacing. The repeated “I believe it’s magic” is less a declaration of love, and more the repeated mantra of a serial killer. There is nothing fun or exhilarating about the scene. Listening to the whole sing, however, one finds a dark ballad. It may be a love song that could easily be an ironic hate song. 

In a movie about ghosts, it’s nice to have a song that sounds like fear. 

Track 8. “Main Title Theme (Ghostbusters)” – Elmer Bernstein

This album is officially all over the place. This is a sample of Ghostbusters‘ score, as written by Elmer Bernstein, and you can hear that this is an upbeat, big city comedy. The supernatural elements are downplayed for this theme song. The tone of the movie is a perfect balance of the supernatural and the comedic, but no one piece of music on the soundtrack has managed to fit in both. Well, other than the title track. The score goes back and forth, rarely balancing the two. But it’s a great score. It’s varied and clever. 

Track 9. “Dana’s Theme” – Elmer Bernstein

As seen here. There are eerie elements at play. 

Track 10. “Ghostbusters (Instrumental Version)” – Ray Parker, Jr.

Look me in the eye and tell me that Huey Lewis was wrong. 

Which is Better: The Soundtrack or the Movie?

Columbia Pictures

The movie is considered to be a classic in many circles, and is certainly one of the most celebrated films of Generation X. Revisiting it reveals that it still has just as much comic power as it did in 1984, just as much wit, and just as fun a premise (New York exterminators that capture ghosts instead of rats). It’s an excellent New York movie, a hilarious comedy, and a just-spooky-enough ghost movie. Making sequels, spinoffs, and remakes cannot damage the quality of the film. All it can really do is continue to overexpose something that has long ago become grossly overexposed. 

The soundtrack is an entirely different animal from the film. It’s rare that a film’s soundtrack can exist so far away from its film. Apart from the tracks written expressly for the movie, there is nothing of Ghostbusters on the album. It’s a mixed collection of New Wave hits and pop songs that seem to have been selected, almost at random, from low places in 1984’s pop charts. The album as a whole plays like a halfway decent, but not quite complete, A-side on a long-forgotten mixtape you never finished making in high school. It’s scattered and doesn’t have a cohesive sound. 

Here’s your challenge, dear reader: Construct a 20-track playlist that incorporates tracks 3 through 7 from this album. That particular stretch might just be the inspiration for one of the better mixes you can make. 

Witney Seibold is a contributor to the CraveOnline Film Channel, and the co-host of The B-Movies Podcast and Canceled Too Soon. He also contributes to Legion of Leia and to Blumhouse. You can follow him on “The Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.

Previously on SoundTreks:

Top Image: Columbia Pictures