Huey Lewis & The News vs. Ray Parker Jr.
(courtesy of Lawrence)
After pairing these guys up it’s clear to me that this is one of those, “eh… I guess I thought they sounded the same but I haven’t heard the Ghostbusters theme in like 10 years” situations.
Huey Lewis & The News – I Want a New Drug
Ray Parker Jr.- Ghostbusters Theme
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actually, HL&TN took Ray Parker, Jr. to court for stealing the bassline and won.
There’s a reason it’s so close!
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Actually, Huey Lewis sued Ray Parker and won…
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Technically Huey Lewis didn’t win, it was settled out of court, and now Lewis is being sued by Parker for breach of contract by publicly speaking about it. Part of the settlement was that he would no longer mention it (for whatever reason, probably because Lewis was actually right).
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I have heard that HL&TN were actually asked to do the theme song for ghostbusters, as they did alot of theme songs for films in that era, but declined. Then Ray Parker got the gig, and proceeded to blatantly rip off Huey?
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In 1984, Ray Parker Jr. was signed by the producers of Ghostbusters to develop the film’s title song. Later that year, Huey Lewis and the News sued Parker, citing the similarities between the Ghostbusters theme song and their earlier hit “I Want a New Drug”. According to Huey Lewis and the News, this was especially damaging to them since the Ghostbusters theme song was so popular, rising to number one on the charts for three weeks. Parker and Lewis later settled out of court.[2] Huey Lewis has stated that his experiences with the producers of Ghostbusters may have been indirectly responsible for getting his band involved with the movie Back to the Future.
In the 2001 Behind the Music special, Huey Lewis stated: “The offensive part was not so much that Ray Parker Jr. had ripped this song off, it was kind of symbolic of an industry that wants something — they wanted our wave, and they wanted to buy it. … [I]t’s not for sale. … In the end, I suppose they were right. I suppose it was for sale, because, basically, they bought it.”[3] As a result of this statement, Ray Parker Jr. has filed a suit against Huey Lewis, claiming he violated the settlement’s confidentiality agreement and seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages as well as attorney fees. The lawsuit is ongoing.
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jack Reply:
December 13th, 2009 at 2:33 am
I remember Ray Parker’s music and he never played any music that sounded like he’d ever write a song like ” Ghost busters” theme. In my opinion I think he did the same thing alot of rappers did in the early nineties – ripped off that groove and placed his own melody on top of it.
To my knowledge, the copyright laws don’t cover “grooves” they only cover Melodies and lyrics. That’s the same way James Brown lost some of his music to the Hip Hop Community.
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it is obsurd two artists suing each other a song it is abosultely riddiculous
and there was a cover version of the hit song flash by vangard originally
concieved by queen and the other was like a prayer by mad’house again
originaly concieved by madonna and lastly mcfly did a version of the ghostbusters
song for a concert of thiers the song ghostbusters was harold ramis’s idea
for the song so he admited on the ghostbusters bluray 25th anniversarie
special edition at the end of the day it is a song it do not matter of who
did it first .
frankie smales
(frankie smales movie and tv review uk)
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“at the end of the day it is a song it do not matter of who did it first .”
I love how “At the end of the day” can be used to justify almost anything. “At the end of the day, she can’t come back to life, so there’s no point in putting him on trial for murder.”
Now If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to rip off “Billie Jean” and work on my future hit song now…
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They both borrowed this riff from M’s Pop Musik.
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Keith Reply:
April 25th, 2010 at 8:54 am
Wow. Excellent find!
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I believe both songs are inspired by Shake Your Body To The Ground by The Jacksons if you can hear the keyboard riff closely.
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