Pop legend is unrecognizable 39 years after the successful Hollywood film song, the Oscars and the reality TV shock
He rose to fame after writing and performing the theme song to the 1980s film “Ghostbusters.”
Who are you calling? Singer Ray Parker Jr. looks very different today than he did when the iconic song brought him to the Oscars stage in 1985.
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The title was at the top of the US charts for three weeks and was also listed in the legendary radio Municipal Music Hall at the closing of the 1985 MTV Video Music Awards.
However, Ray achieved fame before Ghostbusters in the 70s with his band Raydio.
After they separated in the early 1980s, he released five albums between 1981 and 1991.
This resulted in several top ten hits, including “Jack and Jill”, “You Can’t Change That” and “A Woman Needs Love (Just Like You Do”).
He has also written songs for artists such as Chaka Khan, The Supremes, Tina Turner, The Carpenters and The Temptations.
Since then, however, apart from another album in 2006, Ray has largely disappeared from the music scene as a solo star.
In 2014 he was honored with a star on the legendary Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Fans in the States were also thrilled when Ray unexpectedly returned to the spotlight with his appearance on The Masked Singer last year USA.
Ray was revealed to be Sir Bug A Boo and performed the Ghostbusters theme song on the hit series.
Eagle-eyed British fans may also remember that in 2009 he appeared in an advert for directory assistance service 118 118, performing a remastered version of his hit Ghostbusters title.
At the beginning of the year he summarized the secret of his successful songwriting.
In an interview with Pop Matters he said: “All my songs, including ‘Ghostbusters’ and ‘Jack and Jill’, are simple songs. Three chords, four chords. Verse, chorus, clever lyrics, and that’s it.”
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