Searsly Spuhghetti

 By Eddie Spuhghetti


1984 goes down as one of the highest grossing years in cinematic history and look no further for proof than the top ten: they are all classics in their own right.  Beverly Hills Cop, Gremlins, Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom, Romancing The Stone, The Karate Kid, Footloose, Police Academy, The Terminator, Star Trek III: The Search For Spock and oh yeah, Ghostbusters.  Teaser trailers were sort of a new thing at the time and certainly helped peak interest for this wacko sci-fi/horror comedy chock full of SNL and SCTV alumni that was set to be released in July.  Only, nobody was humming that iconic theme song after seeing the teaser: when it came to giving the boys with nuclear-accelerators-on-their-backs a heroic tune, who did the producers call?!  Not Ray Parker Jr.

Hughes & Thrall, a then-newly established collaboration between former Deep Purple bassist Glenn Hughes and touring-guitarist Pat Thrall, were brought aboard to write and perform several songs for the film; one of which would be the purported iconic theme song.  They apparently saw this opportunity as less of a stepping stone towards working on films and more as strengthening their workmanship towards their next album.  At some point in post-production (and after this teaser was released), the plug was pulled on their work and in came Ray Parker Jr. with a more pop-sounding tune that he was inspired to write by some drug song he had heard by a guy named Huey.
     

No known copy of Hughes & Thrall's "Ghostbusters" was released to the public other than the short teaser snippet.  The band has professed that they wish to release it but are not able to (possibly due to a legality).  It's a shame because the song really isn't that bad and could have been used in the end credits: hell, I've found myself listening to the short clip of it a few times in a row just wondering what the rest of the song sounds like.  I'm sure in some alternate reality where my name is Stevie Linguini and Rick Shithouse is called Donathan, we're all singing "Whos that creeping down the hall?  You've got time to make one call!  Gho ho ho ho hoooooosst Ghostbustersssssss!"


Searsly Spuhghetti - "Ghostbusters Teaser Trailer" from EddieSpuhghetti on Vimeo.

There are definitely fans of this original tune and one went as far as to making his own interpretation of it. Keeping things on a theme of alternate interpretations, I'd be remiss not to share some classic Ghosthouse for even more blurring of reality, history and fantasy.