COPYRIGHT VIOLATION SPECIAL

Because there aren't enough lawsuits in music!

Much of my favorite music never had enough commercial appeal to attract legal action. Here's a notable exception.

In the wake of the unforeseen success of the soundtrack album for the summer comedy "Ghostbusters," somebody dropped a lawsuit on Ray Parker Junior, whose tailor-made Ghostbusters Theme sounded a lot like Huey Lewis And The News's then-recent radio hit "I Want A New Drug."

When the litigation story broke, the bitterness of my feeling for Huey and company colored everything. Huey's hit seemed to me to have been built substantially on Soul Finger by the Bar-Kays, a once cherished forty-five I'd subsequently lost in a move. The single had a sentimental value for me, a partial soundtrack to my first tentative boogaloos with the opposite sex (dancing school, I mean).

As it turns out, the picture's producers had edited the title sequence to Huey's hit record, showing the result to Parker with the express wish that he replicate the effect with new music. The judge found for the plaintiffs, and the chunk of money Parker had received for his one hit was decimated, like the bison of the plains.

Having recently picked up a record of Soul Finger, I am newly certain that it is the prototype for Huey's song.

I don't know how much of the damages made their way back to Huey and his mates, but I still like to imagine Huey hacking off a piece of that money and sending it to the Bar-Kays, all of whom, I do not doubt, would find good use for it.

Download these and compare:
GHOSTBUSTERS THEME - Ray Parker Junior
I WANT A NEW DRUG - Huey Lewis And The News
SOUL FINGER - Bar-Kays

Hey! Watching an ad on Comedy Central last night I heard a few moments from Soul Finger by the Bar-Kays. It was set on a bus or a city commute train and I heard just the distinctive multi-tonguing of the trumpet fanfare from this record. Something dot com. Maybe these youngsters will get paid at last, now that they're approaching retirement age.

Thanks to Anonymous for notifying UKEBOX that these mp3 links were misattributed. Much obliged, Podna.