ghostbusters

Audio

Midnight Action

TRACK #436:
Midnight Action by Tahiti


We’ve talked about the expansive and wonderfully creative force that was The Real Ghostbusters in the past.

In the distance past, as it happens, when we posted Touching Old Magic back in 2018.

That piece of highly specific musical gold came from the prime-time Halloween special, The Halloween Door, from 1989. Prior to that however, The Real Ghostbusters had already indulged in 2 Halloween specials. 1986’s When Halloween Was Forever and 1987’s Halloween II 1/2.

Both specials feature the villain Samhain, which is true Sam Loomis fashion, they pronounce as Sam Hain. No matter, cause he’s the Pumpkin-headed spirit of Halloween and he’s incredible. His plan to turn Halloween on forever is commendable and the episode is a great example of what The Real Ghostbusters was great at – a crazy occult plot with wild ass creature taking center stage.

Now, peppered throughout the show’s original season, you can hear a bunch of fun synth pop tunes just kinda hanging out in the background. In particular, there’s one in When Halloween Was Forever that plays briefly during a montage that distinctly says “Frankenstein is groovin!” and if that, playing during a Halloween special of The Real Ghostbusters doesn’t equal “Shindig” I don’t know what the hell does.

Normally when confronted with fleeting inclusive songs of this nature, we just kinda have to accept that probably no one really cared about the song and it’s was never released. Well, not with this number.

Not in the slightest.

Cause they released all these songs as an audio cassette in 1986 called The Real Ghobusters Soundtrack and thank the goddamn maker they did, because fuck yeah. You can listen to that whole album over in the mini-playlist section. Just click the link above.

So thankfully for once, instead of telling you how shitty it is that we can only present you with some 45 second clip of this potentially awesome, we can proudly say here it is, in all it’s Dracula Rapping glory. Oh yeah, Dracula shows up and raps and goddamn great.

So, let’s add yet another Mysterioso Pizzicato offender to this year’s pile, here’s Tahiti with Midnight Action! 

 

Audio

The Real Ghostbusters Soundtrack

On Saturday mornings in 1986, The Real Ghostbusters cartoon aired on ABC to the delight of an entire generation across the country.

What resulted over the next 7 years was one of the finest pieces of animated children’s media to come out of the 80’s. This high quality program was hugely creative, thoroughly entertaining and massively expansive to the Ghostbusters mythos. The variety of wild creatures and situations this iteration of the Ghostbusters went up against was singular, and the animation that brought them to life was top notch.

Like any good cartoon of the era, The Real  Ghostbusters acted as 30 minute commercial for all manner of useless shit your parents didn’t want to buy you. The difference here was that this commercial was impeccably crafted and could stand on its own outside of any merchandise. It never felt like the product informed the art, like say with Transformers. The other difference? Real Ghostbusters shit is awesome, specifically the action figures and the wearable toys. If you don’t remember these things, never had any or are too young to fall into either category, do yourself a favor and Google that awesome shit.

One other piece of very rare merchandise attached to this show is the album presented here today, The Real Ghostbusters Soundtrack. Released in 1986, it features the in-show pop music from specific episodes from the show’s first season run. They’re all performed by two young girls Tonya Townsend and Tyren Perry, a duo known as Tahiti. Unfortunatley (for me at least) this appears to be the only thing Tahiti released. Tyren released a solo album in ’89, but Tonya didn’t

But none of that matters, because for one shinning moment, these two girls were the literal sound of a weird occult children’s cartoon based on a strange supernatural comedy about ghost fighting scientists in New York City and the whole damn thing is too goddamn 80’s to bear. I love every second.The Real Ghostbusters Proton Pack - Kenner (1986) : r/nostalgia

A huge thank you and shout out is due to Paul Rudoff at Spook Central. I’m not sure if he’s the sole responsible party for this rare piece of media existing in the digital domain, but he’s been running Spook Central since 1996, and he’s certainly the reason I know about this album. So, my credit and my thanks land on him directly. I mean no ill will posting the playlist here, nor am I interested in diverting traffic away from his site. You can listen to all of this on Spook Central, or on several different YouTube accounts. It just seemed again like the kind of thing people should be able to listen to here, so now they can.

If you love The Real Ghostbusters and always wished there were full versions of these songs, I’ve got good news. If you just love the most 80’s of 80’s synth pop syngery, I’ve also got some good news.

Here it is, in all it’s glory, from straight heaters like Don’t Play Her Game, to the epic 80’s beauty of Hometown Hero, to Shindig Halloween solid gold like Midnight Action…it’s all here. Enjoy.

 

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Who You Gonna Call?

Audio

Ghostbusters

TRACK #115:

Ghostbusters by Ray Parker Jr.

Is there a more well known or loved Title Track than Ray Parker Jr.’s Ghostbusters? Probably not. Which explains why you’re guaranteed to hear it multiple times around Halloween and The Shindig is obviously no exception.

A certified hit, Ghostbusters spent 3 weeks at #1 on the Billboard charts in August of 1984 and it’s no wonder. This catchy number is spooky, danceable and unrelentingly 80’s.

And the video, one of the first cross-media promotional blitzes of its kind, is something to behold. With Ray creeping it up in a weird, minimalistic, neon house, The Ghostbusters themselves dancing down Broadway with him and a collection of the most bizarre cameos ever assembled, it’s pure Reagen-Era cheese.
gb_peter

Seriously, what the fuck is Peter Falk doing in the Ghostbusters video? Chevy Chase, John Candy, Al Franken, hell even Danny Devito all make some sort of sense. But then up pops Columbo and what the fuck? Yeah, it’s pretty 80’s.

The song itself wasn’t something Ray Parker’s people were at all interested in having Ray sing. Keep in mind, the movie wasn’t even released yet, much less a success.

“So wait, you want our smooth, panty droppin’ Ray Parker Jr. to sing about fuckin’ ghosts for,…what’s this fuckin’ thing called again? ‘Ghostbusters?’ Yeah, that ain’t happening, pal. You can take a hike with that business.”

It’s an understandable reaction. But Ivan Reitman managed to convinced old Ray it’d be a hit and damn it if the guy wasn’t right on the money. The popularity of the movie and this song are completely unmatched.

Now, indelibly woven into the fabric of American pop culture, I’m not sure anyone can ever utter a phrase even close to “who you gonna call?” without some dickhead shouting “Ghostbusters!”

Yeah, that same phrase everyone probably thought sounded pretty stupid before the film blew up like 2 tons of marshmallow all over 1984.

But when something’s this big, people start to pay attention. Maybe a little too closely.

First and foremost you have Huey Lewis suing Ray Parker because he reckoned Ghostbusters sounded a bit too much like I Want a New Drug for his liking. A settlement was reached that Ray still isn’t at liberty discuss on record.

Then you have The Screen Actors Guild getting all bent outta shape due to these cameos and the non-unionized status of the fledgling music video industry.

There’s also a copyright issue regarding the video which has kept it off every subsequent home release of the film, nearly causing the video to be lost forever. Chalk another one up in the win column of the Internet for that.

And still further, there’s even more nonsense over the title with subsequent animated versions of The Ghosbusters, but we’ll delve into that one a little further down the playlist.

For now, let us and your guests revel in what is perhaps the most popular and crowd pleasing song The Shindig has to offer.

All I have left to say is…