Friday Nite Retro

Thank God it's F R I D A Y ! ! !

Welcome once again to Friday Nite Retro. Tonight's journey takes us back to the late 1970's and early 80's for some groovin' sounds from Ray Parker! Although he's primarily know for singing the theme song from Ghostbusters, which Huey Lewis and Lyndsay Buckingham both turned down, Parker had several other hit singles as well as working with Barry White in the early 70's and writing and performing session work for The Carpenters, Rufus and Chaka Khan, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Leon Haywood, Temptations, The Spinners, Boz Scaggs, Rhythm Heritage, Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Honey Cone, and Diana Ross.

Parker created Raydio in 1977, with Vincent Bohnam, Jerry Knight, and Arnell Carmichael. The group scored their first big hit, "Jack and Jill", off of their self-titled album in 1978. It reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, and earned the band a gold record.

Jack and Jill


The next year saw their follow-up hit, "You Can't Change That" from the Rock On album, hit #9 on the Billboard charts.

You Can't Change That


In 1980, their name morphed into Ray Parker Jr. and Raydio, and they released two final albums: Two Places at the Same Time(1980) and A Woman Needs Love(1981).

A Woman Needs Love


After Raydio broke up in 1981, Parker continued on to a successful solo career, scoring six Top 40 hits, including the hit single "The Other Woman" in 1982 "I Sill Can't Get Over Loving You in 1983, and "Ghostbusters" in 1984.

The Other Woman


I Still Can't Get Over Loving You


Parker was accused of plagiarizing the melody for Ghostbusters from Huey Lewis & the News' song "I Want a New Drug". This ended with Lewis suing Parker, and the pair settled out of court in 1985.

Ghostbusters


From his 1984 album Chartbusters:

Jamie


And, from 1987's After Dark:

I Don't Think That Man Should Sleep Alone


Stop by and visit Ray at his official site.