Original artwork, not a still
Ray Parker Jr.'s theme song, Ghostbusters (1984)
Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!
— Ghostbusters · 1984
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
It is a jingle disguised as a question, and that is why it works: any listener can answer it. Parker built the hook on the pattern of a pest-control advert, so the film sold a business as well as a monster story. Fans now use it as the all-purpose reply to trouble in the neighbourhood, and it has been the franchise's sing-along ever since, despite a lawsuit over its likeness to an earlier Huey Lewis hit.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for GhostbustersShow the scene
The hook belongs to Ray Parker Jr.'s theme song 'Ghostbusters', written and performed by Parker for Ivan Reitman's Ghostbusters (1984); it is Parker, with a backing chorus, who sings the question and the answer, not a character. Reitman originally wanted only a short song with the word 'Ghostbusters' in it. After other writers' attempts failed, Parker framed it as a TV commercial, so that the chorus could simply shout the title instead of rhyming it. In the film a snippet plays under the title logo and again in the montage of the new business taking off. Parker's single and its music video, released in June 1984, carried it far beyond the film.
Sources (1)
- Ghostbusters (song), Ghostbusters WikiHistory; Ghostbusters (1984) TriviaReference checked
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