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Ray Parker Jr.'s Detroit roots

Long before 'Ghostbusters' he was a teen playing at the 20 Grand

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Who ya gonna call?: Ray Parker!


I put it to Parker that he hasn't heard the song until he's heard my wife's Karaoke version, before asking him if he'll be re-recording it for the much-rumored Ghostbusters 3. "I'm assuming they're going to keep the theme I already did," Parker says. "I don't think they're going to update it and I'll tell you why. They came out with a series of video games a couple of years ago for Nintendo, Xbox and a bunch of other stuff. Sony, who owns the rights to the picture, did a whole lot of worldwide research. They spent a lot of money. They thought, 'Let's do an updated version and put Snoop Dogg and Ray together.' All different things. After they did all that, the whole of planet Earth unanimously told them they want the old version. It was just one of those songs they didn't wanna remake. All of the video games use the old version and I betcha anything, now they've done that research, they'll do the same with the movie. If they call me, of course, I'll go in and do something. I got a funny feeling they'll leave it as is. Either way, it'll be wonderful for me."

On Feb. 13, Parker and his undercelebrated career will be the subject of the Unsung show airing on TV One — the black-oriented cable channel's answer to Behind the Music. We should be hearing all about those early Detroit days, hits like "You Can't Change That" and "The Other Woman," "Ghostbusters" and much more. Parker is excited to see how it turns out.

"It's going to be Ray Parker Jr.'s life story," he says. "It should be surprising. Things that you don't know are in there. You'll find out a No. 1 song that won Grammys that I wrote when I was a kid and didn't really get credit for it. That will surprise you."

He laughs, then adds, "How do you like that? Now you gotta see it."


Ray Parker Jr.'s Unsung episode will debut on TV One on Feb. 13 (at 9 and 10 p.m.) and can be seen afterward at tvone.tv.

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