'The Jungle Book' Meets 'Ghostbusters': Watch Bill Murray and Jon Favreau Get Serenaded in New Orleans Bar

Back in December 2014, Jon Favreau brought his Jungle Book stars Bill Murray and Christopher Walken down to New Orleans for a recording session with local musicians, including hometown heroes Dr. John and Kermit Ruffins. Favreau, who had shot Chef in town a year earlier, had his actors do new versions of the seminal 1967 Jungle Book songs “The Bare Necessities” and “I Wan’na Be Like You (The Monkey Song)” for his updated, live-action and digitally animated version — and he wanted to inject a Big Easy flair in tribute to Louis Prima, the New Orleans-born singer-trumpeter who gave life to King Louie in the original Disney cartoon.

More: Secrets of ‘The Jungle Book’ Revealed by Jon Favreau and Cast

During their sojourn in the Crescent City, Favreau and Murray patronized a local watering hole to take in some NOLA flavor. And that’s where the fun began. We’ll let Favreau pick up the tale…

“I invited Bill to come down to New Orleans for recording. I didn’t know if he’d show up or not, but sure enough, he came down. And we had a really amazing time,” the filmmaker recently recounted to Yahoo Movies. He elaborated to Mashable: “We went down to Frenchman Street … we saw some classic jazz, to help inspire us… We went to one of the small bars and there was a brass band playing in there. We sat down at the table of this tiny place and in the middle of the song that they were playing, the guy playing trombone stops the band … and then he bursts into ‘Ghostbusters’ and the whole brass band was playing ‘Ghostbusters.’ The whole place exploded.

“It was one of the most exciting moments of my career, to be sitting next to Bill Murray with him smiling and them playing ‘Ghostbusters’ to him from like 10 feet away. Then he leaned over to me and he was like, ‘You know, Jon, you really need a theme song.’”

Now we have the video evidence of that serendipitous moment courtesy of a YouTuber who goes by the handle “Daniel” and identifies the group as the Glen David Andrews Band. (Watch the video above.) The venue, per NOLA.com, was the Three Muses on Frenchman Street. And just as Favreau said, the bar goes wild and Murray relishes every moment.

Related: ‘Jungle Book’ Easter Eggs for Disney Devotees

Meanwhile, here are some vintage Instagram photos from Favreau and Ruffins of their sessions with Murray and Walken, who also recorded their Baloo-King Louie showdown together while down in New Orleans.

And while we’re sharing, here are the new versions of “The Bare Necessities” and I Wan’na Be Like You” (the latter featuring new Gigantopithecus-rhyming lyrics from original songwriter Richard Sherman) from The Jungle Book soundtrack.