Ivan Reitman Remembered by ‘Ghostbusters’ Singer Ray Parker Jr.: ‘He Thought It Was a Hit When Nobody Else Did — Including Myself!’

variety.com:

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorRay Parker Jr. had enjoyed a successful career in music when he received a call from his friend Gary LeMel about doing music for a weird film called “Ghostbusters.” Originally a session guitarist in his native Detroit, he recorded and toured with artists like Barry White, Bohannon, the Spinners and Marvin Gaye, and performed on Stevie Wonder’s classic “Talking Book” album and was the guitarist in Wonder’s band on a 1972 tour opening for the Rolling Stones.

As a solo artist and with his group Raydio, he enhoyed hits with songs like “You Got the Love,” “Jack and Jill” and “A Woman Needs Love.”But the success of “Ghostbusters” — which was originally just music for a 20-second segment in the film — went far beyond anything he’d accomplished before, and as he says below, it was all thanks to “Ghostbusters” director Ivan Reitman, who passed away on Sunday.

Parker remembers his friend below. [Legendary film music executive] Gary LeMel — I knew him from the Barry White days, he was the publisher on those records, and he just thought I was the right one for that project.I did a couple — I did the theme for “The Richard Pryor Show” [which ran for one season in 1977] and I did a Lily Tomlin, but not a lot. “Ghostbusters” just kinda came out of nowhere.Gary LeMel took me there and, I’ll never forget, I met in a room full of people, Ivan was there and he told us what he wanted, and I left early because I had a good idea of what he was looking for.