Before Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor starred in 1989’s Harlem Nights, the two made a bet that Murphy still thinks about to this day.

In 2023, the Norbit star appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to promote an upcoming movie when the host brought up Murphy’s 1985 musical album How Could It Be. It’s common for comedians to create comedy albums. Yet when it comes to regular music most are unserious, with jokes and songs real artists wouldn’t touch.

When Murphy told Richard Pryor he wanted to make a music album, the veteran jokester bet six figures that Eddie couldn’t do it without adding a joke.

“When I told him I was doing a music album, he bet me $100,000 that I wouldn’t put out a music album where there’s no jokes or nothing, it’s just all music. He said, ‘You’ll never do it.’ And I bet him $100,000. And then I did it, and he never paid me,” Murphy recalled.

He never got the money, but Murphy got a hit song instead.

When I first heard this story, I laughed. It’s even funnier thinking about how a song from How Could It Be, “Party All the Time,” reached the top five on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart.

For three weeks in 1985, Murphy’s single stayed at No. 2 on the U.S. chart. It also charted in Australia, Finland, Belgium, and Canada. The music video won best urban contemporary video at the American Video Awards that year, too. With Murphy as lead vocalist and Rick James on background vocals, drums and production, “Party All the Time” was inescapable.

It was also certified RIAA Platinum in 1991. Eddie didn’t gain $100,000 from Pryor, but he added a hit song to his long list of accomplishments and, four years later, starred in a movie alongside one of his childhood idols.

“I never brought it up,” he added. “We did a movie, we did Harlem Nights afterward, and I never said anything. But he owes me.”

Header image credit: Eddie Murphy Productions, 1989/IMDb