When the supernatural comedy film Ghostbusters came out back in 1984 there were two things I loved just as much as the film itself, the film theme tune by Ray Parker Jr. and the iconic Ghostbusters logo.
THE THEME TUNE
What can I say, this is one of the most iconic soundtracks in cinematic history and it still sounds great some thirty eight years later. Whenever I hear the track it takes me back to the summer time when it was first released. If I remember correctly it was in the UK Singles Chart for about three weeks and therefore got quite a lot of airplay on the UK radio.
I only learnt years later that Ray Parker Jr. was sued by Huey Lewis and the News for plagiarism shortly after the films release because he was alleged to have copied the melody and bassline from Lewis' 1983 song called "I Want a New Drug".
The case was settled out of court in 1985 for an undisclosed sum and a confidentiality agreement that prohibited discussing the case.
THE FILM
Shortly after their first encounter with a ghost, a trio of Parapsychology professors form a paranormal investigation and elimination service called "Ghostbusters" afer being fired from the university where they worked due to the credibility of their paranormal-focused research.
Operating out of a disused firestation they set about developing high tech nuclear powered equipment to capture and contain ghosts. Business is initially slow but soon they find themselves being called out to deal with more and more ghosts across the city as supernatural activity rapidly increases. Eventually the Ghostbusters become famous and they have to hire a forth member to help them deal with growing demand.
An Environmental Protection Agency inspector becomes suspicious of the Ghostbusters work and soon has them arrested forcing their ghost containment unit to be deactivated which by this time is almost nearing capacity. The resultant deactivation causes an explosion and releases the captured ghosts. With supernatural chaos now across the city the Ghostbusters convince the major to release them from jail.
The film then culminates with them having to deal with a giant Marshmallow Man called Mr. Stay-Puft which is destroying the city. The Marshmallow Man is in actual fact a physical manifestation of an apocalyptic Sumerian deity named Gozer which has been summoned down to earth by two possessed entities via a dimensional gate.
The Ghostbusters are able to create an explosion by crossing their proton energy streams at the gate and Gozer's avatar is then destroyed banishing it back to it's dimension with the gateway then closing.
The Ghostbusters are then welcomed on the streets as heroes.
Unfortunately I never got to see the film at the cinema when it was first released and I had to wait until it was aired on British television a few years later.. I can remember all the hype at the time of it's release though and thats how I come to like the iconic Ghostbusters logo so much.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostbusters
THE LOGO
The Ghostbusters logo which is more commonly referred to as the No-Ghost Sign must surely be one of the most iconic logos of the 80s. I love the logo so much, it's so simple yet so striking. I particularly like the use of colours too and feel that the white ghost within the red "No Entry" sign work so well together on the solid black background.
There is an interesting article on the history of the Ghostbusters logo and I've provided a link for it below. One thing I learnt whilst doing research for this post was that the ghost in the logo actually had a name; he was called Mooglie.
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