“Party All The Time”
Eddie Murphy’s accomplishments as a comedian, voice actor, and actor are impressive to say the least. Rising to fame as a regular cast member on Saturday Night Live (1980-1984) and then scoring hits with 48 Hours (1982), Trading Places (1983), and Beverly Hills Cops (1984), Murphy has cemented his place in Hollywood lore and continues to this day. As far as his career as a singer … well … let’s just say I loved him in Trading Places!
The featured song, “Party All the Time,” was written and produced by Rick James and was the lead single from Murphy’s debut album How Could It Be (1985). Rather amazingly, it reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks. The cynic in me feels that this had more to do with his stature as an actor and entertainer than his musical ability, but as always, you guys can make up your own minds. For me, this song starts grating on my nerves well before the vocals kick in at 45 seconds, and when they do, it doesn’t get any better. To make matters worse, it’s over four minutes long! It would appear, from what I have read, that my assessment of this tune is not far off the mark. When the song came out, a Los Angeles Times reader criticized the song, characterizing it as “Gumby goes disco,” a reference to the character parodied by Murphy on SNL. Scott Benarde, a critic for Ft. Lauderdale’s Sun-Sentinel, awarded the song his worst single for 1985, calling it a “catchy up tempo dance number,” asserting that “Murphy adds nothing but his ego to it. His voice is paper thin and buried in the mix.”
Why someone would choose to cover this song is beyond me, but here you go. JJ Mist is a New Zealand based singer/songwriter with a passion for experimenting the musical sounds and atmosphere of the 80s, which partially explains the choice, but I would argue that there are many, many songs from the 80s that would be better covers than this. Her solo album, Communication, was produced with “the intention to inspire nostalgia of an exciting decade.” I guess the 80s were exciting; it was my “30s” decade! Referring to the songs on the album, someone wrote, “The beauty of the 80s is represented through Caribbean sounds meeting funky guitars and heavy bass-lines.”
To be fair, I have not listened to the album, but this cover does not sound Caribbean to me. In fact, both the original and the cover sound a bit like the theme music for Beverly Hills Cops. Hmmm.
Enjoy!
Eddie Murphy. “Party All the Time” 1985.
JJ Mist. “party All the Time” cover 2016
Just in case you’re a glutton for punishment, here is a metal cover by Third Gear (2023).
Los Angeles 2025
This is very high on my personal list of annoying songs. Like you, you find it grates on me from from the get go. JJ ‘missed’ on this one. Why anyone would attempt this song is beyond me! We have to add this to our Hall of Fame, lol if we had one!
I love it! The A.S.H.ofF! We could use a photo of someone grimacing and covering their ears.
Exactly!
My wife suggested it should be called the Annoying Song Hall of Shame! I like that.
Has a certain ring to it, yes we should do this! I guess we need to accumulate more songs. Of course we could just add a bunch of songs to be like the R&R HOF and ignore our own criteria!
Haha! We could do that.
While “Party All the Time” obviously is a dance song, let’s just say Eddie Murphy was better at acting than at singing. JJ Mist doesn’t do much to me to advance the song. Third Gear at least are rocking and you gotta give to the lead vocalist – he may not sound very pretty, but he’s got true passion! As such, I think this rendition might be my favorite of the three, though the bar isn’t too high here. I wonder how our resident metal expert Deke feels about it.
I agree about the metal version!
Eddie Murphy’s song is pretty bad, and I’m certain your observation about it becoming such a big hit was likely due in large part to his popularity as an actor and celebrity. It seems a lot of actors (or their managers) in the 70s and 80s thought they could bank on their fame by releasing songs (see John Travolta, David Soul, David Hasselfhoff, Bruce Willis and Don Johnson to name a few) all of which were godawful. In her cover, JJ Mist uses the exact same music from Murphy’s original, then overdubs her weak vocals. I agree with others about the metal version by Third Gear being the best – or least objectionable. The big question is, why would anyone want to cover such an insipid, poorly-written song in the first place?
That’s quite the list of bad music, Randy and I will have to check those “crooners” out! Why indeed anyone would chose to cover this song does give one pause, not to mention a headache.
“insipid”, is a perfect description and definitely word of the day Jeff!
MAKE IT STOP!
Haha!
It’s a truly horrid song, though actually I thought the metal version was less dull than the original and the cover on which JJ missed.
I hated it when I heard it and it is NOT wine…it did not age well because it only had one place to go…down. Like you said…why anyone would cover it is beyond me!