Who Knew?

So I'm driving down the street, listening to the smooth jazz radio station - because that's how I roll - and what should I hear, but the smoothest, grooviest, most guitar-plinking, key-tar-iest, e-pianomatic-o-riffic-est, drum-machiniest smooth jazz jam ever.

For a moment, I pause from getting my groove on to keep all the blood from rushing to my head, and also to see what artist could have made such an icy-cool jam.

The SiriusXM display read, "ARTIST: Ray Parker, Jr."

What the...? Not Ray Parker, Jr., I mean not the Ray Parker, Jr., the guy who can only have crawled out of nowhere to record the theme from the movie Ghostbusters, only to vanish into obscurity 20 minutes later. Surely not that Ray Parker, Jr., right? Wasn't he just a figment of everyone's collective imagination? Wasn't he just some nobody that they paid to sing a movie song and then banished into the out-darkness of one-hit has-beens (or is it "have-beens?")? I mean, I wasn't even entirely sure I believed in Ray Parker, Jr.

Yes, that Ray Parker, Jr.

A little lunch-hour internet research reveals that that Ray Parker, Jr. has actually been a recording artist since the 60s. He wrote songs for and played with Stevie Wonder, Barry White, LaToya Jackson, and others. He sings, plays guitar, drums, and piano. He owns a music studio in Los Angeles, and he even endorses a brand of guitars. He also has a respectable list of acting credits.

Who knew?