Raised on Radio #30- Singing Wrestlers
Mar. 16th, 2013 11:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedsitter23You can't be really blamed for what you liked age 11, right?
The two most important important things in my life in 1985 were music and wrestling (politics and comic strips were close third and fourth). See. Nothing changes. I have always been here before.
1985 was a perfect moment for this as Hulkamania had broken through and the WWF was a big thing, and the obvious next step was the Wrestling Album, which I loved.
it's hard not to love the big single "Land of 1000 dances", which you shouldn't make fun of. It has a former Governor (Ventura, of course), a billionaire (Vince), a man with over a quarter million twitter followers (Iron Sheik), and uhhh.. Meat Loaf.
411mania did an article on the brilliance that includes Roddy Piper's end-of-song rant, the genius of Freddie Blassie, Nikolai Volkoff's Soviet National Anthem gimmick, and the fact that heroes and villains were separated.
It's obviously a gimmick album, but it has a lot more talent behind it than you think.
Rick Derringer (of "Rock N roll Hoochie Koo" fame) produced, played bass, guitar, and keys. I get the feeling that Derringer pretty much would do anything for money in the 1980s.
Cyndi Lauper (who was appearing at Wrestlemania) produced and sang.
Jim Steinman wrote "Hulk Hogan's theme" (not to be confused with "Real American" which Hogan ended up using. it's a bombastic anthem that sounds like Jim Steinman wrote it.
Vicki Sue Robinson ("Turn the Beat Around") sang backing vocals and Roy Bittan (E-Street Band) played keyboards.
The WWF also had a bonafide rock artist Jimmy Hart (vocalist for The Gentrys best known for "Keep on Dancin") who played a major role as producer and writer, and mostly stuck to songs that were old rock standards like '1000 Dances". 'Cara Mia' and 'Tutti Frutti"
I stuck around 2 years later (age 13, this time0 for the second wrestling alum which this time brought in soft rock hero Robbie duPree ("Steal Away"), took itself a bit more seriously, and of course, featured a cover of "...Hoochie Koo".
That was the end of the WWF/WWE soundtracks for me, but they have had a very successful run over the years. the third album (1993) was overlooked by British pop overlords Stock Aitken Waterman 9minus Aitken) with executive producer Simon Cowell (The album reached #10 on the UK charts and had two Top 15 hits in the UK). Album #4 (1996) went in the direction of heavy metal and features a band consisting of members of bands like Type o Negative, Overkill, Anthrax (Scott Ian), Pro pain, and Savatage.
Since then the WWE has consistently released compilations of wrestling themes which seem to sell well, and occasionally someone like Motorhead, Insane Clown Posse, Run DMC, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, or Three Six mafia show up.
Still in nearly 30 years, maybe none more fun than the one that started it.
The two most important important things in my life in 1985 were music and wrestling (politics and comic strips were close third and fourth). See. Nothing changes. I have always been here before.
1985 was a perfect moment for this as Hulkamania had broken through and the WWF was a big thing, and the obvious next step was the Wrestling Album, which I loved.
it's hard not to love the big single "Land of 1000 dances", which you shouldn't make fun of. It has a former Governor (Ventura, of course), a billionaire (Vince), a man with over a quarter million twitter followers (Iron Sheik), and uhhh.. Meat Loaf.
411mania did an article on the brilliance that includes Roddy Piper's end-of-song rant, the genius of Freddie Blassie, Nikolai Volkoff's Soviet National Anthem gimmick, and the fact that heroes and villains were separated.
It's obviously a gimmick album, but it has a lot more talent behind it than you think.
Rick Derringer (of "Rock N roll Hoochie Koo" fame) produced, played bass, guitar, and keys. I get the feeling that Derringer pretty much would do anything for money in the 1980s.
Cyndi Lauper (who was appearing at Wrestlemania) produced and sang.
Jim Steinman wrote "Hulk Hogan's theme" (not to be confused with "Real American" which Hogan ended up using. it's a bombastic anthem that sounds like Jim Steinman wrote it.
Vicki Sue Robinson ("Turn the Beat Around") sang backing vocals and Roy Bittan (E-Street Band) played keyboards.
The WWF also had a bonafide rock artist Jimmy Hart (vocalist for The Gentrys best known for "Keep on Dancin") who played a major role as producer and writer, and mostly stuck to songs that were old rock standards like '1000 Dances". 'Cara Mia' and 'Tutti Frutti"
I stuck around 2 years later (age 13, this time0 for the second wrestling alum which this time brought in soft rock hero Robbie duPree ("Steal Away"), took itself a bit more seriously, and of course, featured a cover of "...Hoochie Koo".
That was the end of the WWF/WWE soundtracks for me, but they have had a very successful run over the years. the third album (1993) was overlooked by British pop overlords Stock Aitken Waterman 9minus Aitken) with executive producer Simon Cowell (The album reached #10 on the UK charts and had two Top 15 hits in the UK). Album #4 (1996) went in the direction of heavy metal and features a band consisting of members of bands like Type o Negative, Overkill, Anthrax (Scott Ian), Pro pain, and Savatage.
Since then the WWE has consistently released compilations of wrestling themes which seem to sell well, and occasionally someone like Motorhead, Insane Clown Posse, Run DMC, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, or Three Six mafia show up.
Still in nearly 30 years, maybe none more fun than the one that started it.
