Eddie Murphy left no stones unturned in his conquest of Hollywood. By 1985, the comedian and Hollywood icon took a swing at his dreams of transforming his musical parodies into full length albums.
One of the hottest entertainers on the planet, the superstar had emerged from the turbulent times at SNL victoriously, miraculously boosting the show's rating while it endured one of its toughest years. In his downtime, he starred in hit films Beverly Hills Cop and Trading Places, and showed no signs of stopping his conquests in entertainment.
Murphy would team up with music legend Rick James to create a song lamenting the woes of a millionaire playboy: "I buy you champagne and roses, put diamonds on your finger. Still, you hang out all night. What am I to do?"
"Music has always been around with me. Like I had a band before I did standup. I had a band when I was like 15 in high school," shared Murphy to Rolling Stone of his musical beginnings. "The name of the band was EMMK. It was the Eddie Murphy Mitchell Keiser Band. Mitchell Keiser was the guy who was my first comedy partner. We formed a band because we could both do impressions, and we were like "You know what would be really cool -- if we could do Beatles impressions and get a real band playing."
He continued, "So we got a band together and played behind us while we did Beatle impressions. Eventually, it turned into a real band."
Murphy would release his first album How Could It Be in 1985 and from his musical debut emerged the hit tune, "Party All The Time." Released as a single in May, "Party All The Time" paired a funky synth-pop beat with Murphy's high-pitched falsetto pleas about courting a girl who "[wanted] to party all the time," despite his wooing her with "champagne, roses, and diamonds."
Played endlessly on the radio, the James-produced single would ride high on Billboard's pop chart, peaking at No. 2 in December.
"The whole way I record, I learned from Rick James," Murphy of his initial album. "I learned how to produce music from hanging around Rick James."
His accompanying music video went into rotation for 14 weeks straight at MTV, negating some critics' derisive comments about Murphy's musical project. In fact, only the powers of Lionel Richie with "Say You, Say Me" blocked Murphy's pop single from the No. 1 spot in December.
The rhythm track may have proved that it helped to be a hit movie star to crossover into being a chart-topping musician as well. By the looks of the charts, Murphy, from his comedian roots to his musical success, would have the last laugh at the end of 1985.
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