#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: August 11, 1984 through August 25, 1984.
#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: August 11, 1984 through August 18, 1984.
#1 on the U.K. Chart: Never.Ghostbusters the movie was probably the first blockbuster comedy. Hit comedies always did reasonably well at the box office, but Ghostbusters pulled in nearly $300 million at the box office against a production budget of about $30 million, which was an entirely new level of success for the genre. For comparison, the most famous collaboration between Harold Ramis and Bill Murray prior to Ghostbusters was Stripes, which grossed $85 million at the box office - a profitable movie, but not nearly in the same stratosphere as Ghostbusters.
Ghostbusters the song was the main theme for the Ghostbusters movie. There is usually some synergy between the success of a movie and the success of a song, and in this case, the synergy worked to launch both to extreme success. This song was written well into the movie production process, after Reitman passed several clips of the movie along to Parker for him to use as inspiration. And this fact is where this story gets interesting.
When Reitman was filming Ghostbusters, he used the Huey Lewis song I Want a New Drug as placeholder music for some scenes, with the intent that it would be replaced by music tailored specifically to the movie before it was ready for release. These scenes ended up using Ray Parker's Ghostbusters song instead, which some people (including Lewis) noticed bore a lot of similarities to I Want a New Drug, resulting in a copyright lawsuit that was resolved via a confidential settlement agreement.
Since no one knows the details of the settlement, it is difficult to say whether Parker actually lifted Lewis' work, or if the songs were similar because they needed to fit the same scenes and thus necessarily shared a lot of tempo and pacing requirements in common. Either way, Ghostbusters was Parker's biggest hit.
Previous Musical Monday: When Doves Cry by Prince
Subsequent Musical Monday: Careless Whisper by George Michael
Previous #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: When Doves Cry by Prince
Subsequent #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: What's Love Got to Do With It by Tina Turner
Previous #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: When Doves Cry by Prince
Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: What's Love Got to Do With It by Tina Turner
List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989
Ray Parker, Jr. 1980s Project Musical Monday Home
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