They were sitting there right next to one another on the Billboard Hot 100 on June 30, 1984. The fact that they were both riding high on the charts made their battle up the Hot 100 all summer one to remember.
These two songs were the highest of five Top 40 debuts that week, one of those debuts being the Top 10 Peabo Bryson smash "If Ever You're In My Arms Again." Van Halen debuted at No. 39 with the third hit from their monster album "1984" called "Panama" and Eddy Grant had the title song from the new Michael Douglas-Kathleen Turner movie "Romancing The Stone."
But there was no doubt what the two alpha male debuts that week were. One was by a legendary former Motown act. The other was by a man who worked at one time for Motown legend Stevie Wonder.
First at No. 30 coming in was the highest debut on the entire Billboard Hot 100. It was a comeback single and first chart single in three years for brothers Randy, Marlon, Jackie, Tito and white-hot superstar Michael. Yup, the Jacksons made an incredible debut in the Top 40 with the first single from the new album/cassette called "Victory." The song, "State Of Shock," was co-written by Michael and guitarist Randy Hansen. It was originally tabbed to be a duet between Michael and Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury, but the project got scrapped. And obsessed with how Jackson and his smash album "Thriller" was doing, Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger wanted to be a part of some new Jackson project. Somehow, it was arranged for Jagger to join Jackson and his brothers for the famous uncredited duet.
And there was a lot of media hype surrounding what would be the triumphant "Victory" tour featuring all six of the Jackson brothers (Jermaine included). The tour had just made its debut that week in Kansas City.
While the Jacksons were off and running with the first single from their new album/cassette, the highest Top 40 debut of the week was just above it at No. 29. It was from a new movie directed by Ivan Reitman and written by and co-starred Harold Ramis about three scientists who have developed equipment to stop ghosts from invading in New York City. And the producers had contacted Ray Parker Jr., reportedly, after Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham, who had composed and recorded "Holiday Road" for the National Lampoon's "Vacation" soundtrack, turned them down, reportedly saying he didn't want to be a "soundtrack artist." So Parker, coming off the success of the 1982 Top 10 solo debut "The Other Woman" and the Top 15 hit earlier in '84, "I Still Can't Get Over Loving You," scratched out the song "Ghostbusters," the movie's title track, and both produced and recorded it. And immediately, radio program directors and DJs fell in love with the song. It debuted on the Hot 100 at No. 68 on June 16, went to No. 47, then got to No. 29 by June 30.
So the summer battle was set to see who would eventually replace Prince's "When Doves Cry" at the top of the chart. The next week, July 7, "Ghostbusters" jumped 10 places from No. 29 to No. 19, while "State Of Shock" moved up nine places from No. 30 to No. 21. The next week, "Ghostbusters" crashed the Top 10 party, going from No. 19 to No. 8, while "State Of Shock" leaped from No. 21 to No. 15. Then on July 21, "State Of Shock" made a huge leap from No. 15 to No. 6, while "Ghostbusters" entered the Top 5, jumping from No. 8 to No. 3. On July 28, "Ghostbusters" moved up one notch to No. 2, while "State Of Shock" jumped two places to No. 4.
The intrigue grew the week of August 4 when "Ghostbusters" was stuck at No. 2 behind "When Doves Cry," holding in its fifth week at No. 1, while "State Of Shock" moved in right behind "Ghostbusters" again at No. 3. Could "Ghostbusters" gain momentum again and go to No. 1 or would "State Of Shock" pull off the, umm, shocker, and leap the "Ghostbusters" and ascend to No. 1? After all, Michael Jackson was a pretty hot artist at the time. It really would not have been a surprise.
The answer was found out August 11. "Ghostbusters" jumped the notch necessary to become Parker's first No. 1 hit. The song would stay at the top for three weeks. The Jacksons and Mr. Jagger held at No. 3 with "State Of Shock" and that would be where the song would wind up peaking ... No. 3 for three straight weeks.
For both the Jacksons and Parker, the battle royale up the Top 40 chart in the summer of '84 marked one sobering fact -- neither act would ever score a Top 10 hit again. And though Parker won the battle, he found the price of victory was costly: Huey Lewis sued Parker for using the bass line from Huey Lewis & The News' hit from earlier in '84, "I Want A New Drug" for "Ghostbusters." The two battled it out in court and in the end, both Lewis and Parker came to a settlement out of court.
It's hard to believe that 30 years have passed since that amazing race up the chart for pop music supremacy that summer between those two titanic hit songs. And though two of the most well-known artists in music history were singing on one of those songs (Jackson and Jagger), it proved that the power of movies was much greater.
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