The Wrestling Album

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The Wrestling Album
Compilation album by Diverse

Publication
(s)

1985

Label (s) Epic Records

Format (s)

CD, LP

Genre (s)

Rock , pop

Title (number)

10

running time

37:47

production

Rick Derringer , Dave Wolff, Jim Steinman , Mona Flambé

Studio (s)

Hit Factory, New York City / McClear Place, Toronto

chronology
- The Wrestling Album Piledriver - The Wrestling Album 2
(1987)
Single releases
1985 The Wrestlers - Land of a Thousand Dances
1985 Junkyard Dog - Grab Them Cakes
1985 Hillbilly Jim - Don't Go Messin 'with a Country Boy

The Wrestling Album is a compilation released in 1985 by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, today: World Wrestling Entertainment) . It was the first album of the wrestling promotion and was created at the height of the so-called "Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection". The album was first released on Epic Records and reissued in 1998 on Koch Records .

background

In the 1980s, the WWF tried to get closer to the MTV generation. There were mutual guest appearances. Sun played "Captain" Lou Albano in the video for Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Cyndi Lauper's father. Dee Snider , NRBQ , Dick Clark and Little Richard then teamed up with Hulk Hogan , who "fought" against Roddy Piper for Lauper's honor. Guest stars such as Liberace , Muhammad Ali and Mr. T also performed at Wrestlemania . The highlight of the collaboration was the music album The Wrestling Album , in which numerous wrestlers could be heard as singers.

The production of the individual songs was done by Rick Derringer , Dave Wolff, Jim Steinman and Mona Flambé. Derringer and Dave Wolff both came to the album through their commitment to Cindi Lauper. It was Wolff who made Vince McMahon want to work together and brought Derringer on board. Wolff also took care of the label deal with Epic Records. A large part of the songs comes from the collaboration with Rick Derringer, who with his band Derringer contributed the famous Hulk Hogan theme Real American . In fact, some of the wrestlers represented on the album also had their own musical talent and brought their own ideas.

Commentators at the time, Vince McMahon (also owner of WWF), "Mean Gene" Okerlund and Jesse "the Body" Ventura led through the album , who put their comments "in character" (see Kayfabe ) behind each song.

Record cover

The cover was a group photo of the then WWF raster that was recorded at Hit Factory recording studio in New York City . Numerous wrestlers are represented, including those who cannot be heard on the album. McMahon, Okerlund and Ventura can be seen in the center of the foreground, with ring announcer Howard Finkel a little further behind . In addition to those involved in the album, you can also see Randy Savage together with his future wife Miss Elizabeth and Cindi Lauper, hidden behind a black wig and with a Rickenbacker guitar . Hulk Hogan, missing in the group picture, was cut in with a portrait photo.

Track list

The times refer to the official running times of the CD version, including the spoken word comments.

# Artist title Copywriter producer length
1 The wrestlers Land of a Thousand Dances? !!? C. Kenner , AF Domino Rick Derringer & Dave Wolff 5:12
2 Junkyard Dog Grab Them Cakes D. Wolff, G. Pavlis, V. Taylor Dave Wolff, Rick Derringer 4:11
3 Derringer Real American (Windham & Rotundo's Theme) B. Kinney, R. Derringer Dave Wolff, Rick Derringer 3:48
4th Jimmy Hart Eat Your Hart Out, Rick Springfield J. Hart Dave Wolff, Rick Derringer 3:39
5 Captain Lou Albano and George "the Animal" Steele Captain Lou's History of Music / Captain Lou C. Lauper , D. Wolff / A. Anderson, T. Adams Mona Flambé 4:18
6th WWF All Stars Hulk Hogan 's theme J. Steinman Jim Steinman 4:30
7th Rowdy Roddy Piper For everybody M. Fitzgerald Rick Derringer 3:13
8th Gene Okerlund Tutti Frutti D. Labostrie, R. Penniman Rick Derringer 2:40
9 Hillbilly Jim Don't Go Messin 'with a Country Boy D. Pomus, M. Chapman, J. Dorn Joel Dorn 2:49
10 Nikolai Volkoff Cara Mia T. Trapani, L. Lange Joel Dorn 2:10
To the individual titles

Land of a Thousand Dances is a cover version of the song of the same name by Chris Kenner . The credit information includes Fats Domino , who was actually not involved in the songwriting and received the credits in exchange for recording the song. On the one hand, the song was the album's first single, and on the other, a music video was shot in which, in addition to Rick Derringer, Meat Loaf and Cyndi Lauper (disguised), numerous wrestlers also played. In fact, the music video was a novelty at the time, as heels and baby faces played side by side.

In grave Them Cakes joined Vicki Sue Robinson as a guest singer. The song was written by Dave Wolff as a disco hit in the 1970s, but was never released.

Rick Derringer's Real American later became popular as Hulk Hogan's enema music. In the credits it was referred to as the theme for the "US Express", a tag team consisting of Barry Windham and Mike Rotundo . However, these left the WWF shortly after the album was released and switched to the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). So the piece was passed on to Hulk Hogan. Derringer and his songwriting partner Bernard Kinney had written it as a patriotic rock piece and not initially planned as a wrestling piece. They only offered it to Vince McMahon in preparation for the album.

Jimmy Hart had previously had a successful career as a singer with The Gentrys , where he also worked as a songwriter. He wrote the song Eat Your Hart Out, Rick Springfield , a small allusion to the then very popular pop singer Rick Springfield himself.

Captain Lou is originally from NRBQ . Lou Albano can also be heard on their version and received the credit for all instruments. In fact, he plays the leitmotif of Griegs Morning from the Peer Gynt Suite there .

Hulk Hogan's Theme was briefly the run-in music for Hulk Hogan and the theme song of the animated series Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling in 1985 . The melody was also used for the song Ravisihing from Bonnie Tyler's album Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire .

For Everybody is actually a cover of the song Fuck Everybody by Mike Angelo & The Idols , published in 1984. Since the WWF tried to present itself as family-friendly, all obscene content and the song title were adapted.

Hillbilly Jim's Don't Go Messin 'with a Country Boy was recorded at Hit Factory in New York City . It was a novelty song that Marshall Chapman and Doc Pomus claim to have been written within 15 minutes. The inspiration came from the song The Ballad of Davy Crockett . Eric Weisberg ( Dueling Banjos ) played the violin. Initially put off by the extremely stupid text, Hillbilly Jim was finally able to come to terms with it and even later used the title as the opening title for his radio show Hillbilly Jim's Moonshine Matinee on Sirius Satellite Radio .

Cara Mia from Nikolai Volkoff is practically the bouncer of the album. Volkoff initially mocks Western music and then begins to sing the hymn of the Soviet Union , whereupon McMahon and Okerlund turn off the microphone. Ventura then tries to convince the two of them to put a song together at the end, but the two flee and leave him alone in the studio.

occupation

Single releases

A total of three singles were released from the album, all three have versions with Captain Lou's History of The World / Captain Lou as the B-side . Land of 1,000 Dances? !!? was the first single on the album and was released in multiple versions, including a 12 "and 7" version that included a remix of the track made by Shep Pettibone .

  1. Land of 1,000 Dances? !!? (Dance Version) - 7:00
  2. Land of 1,000 Dances? !!? (Dub Instrumental) - 5:58

This was followed by Grab Them Cakes , which featured Junkyard Dog with Vicki Sue Robinson on the single cover as the artist . Shep Pettibone made a remix here too.

  1. Grab Them Cakes - 5:50
  2. Grab Them Cakes (Dub Instrumental) - 4:56

Hillbilly Jim's Don't Go Messin 'With a Country Boy was the last single. No single managed to get into the charts.

Success and reception

The album reached number 84 on the Billboard 200. The album was so successful that in 1987 a sequel was released under the title Piledriver - The Wrestling Alnum II . Dave Wolff later won a Slammy Award (a WWF short-lived version of the Academy Award ) for producing the album, which is estimated to have sold more than 400,000 copies. In Canada, the album was awarded a gold record .

In fact, the album was viewed as inferior by critics at the time. The well-known Billboard magazine concluded with the conclusion “They are very good wrestlers for singers”. Even 30 years later, the conclusion is that it is a very bad album, as Rolling Stone commented on the album's 30th anniversary in 2015. However, this is completely irrelevant, since the album was very entertaining and the beginning of a series of other music releases by the WWF and today's WWE. In addition, the album was released at a time when the wrestling business was in upheaval: Vince McMahon had just taken over the WWF and three years later "Hulkamania" was to usher in the temporary climax of wrestling.

New releases

1985 both LP and CD versions of the album were released. A new release, but without bonus tracks, was released in 1998 via Koch Records. On the occasion of Record Store Day 2015, both The Wrestling Album and its sequel Piledriver were re-released as a double LP on red and blue vinyl.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dave Wolff: Liner Notes from The Wrestling Album , CD, Koch Records 1998
  2. ↑ a b c d e f James Montgomery: 'The Wrestling Album' at 30: The Inside Story of a Record That Started a Revolution. Rolling Stone , November 18, 2015, accessed December 3, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Patrick Sauer: The Wrestling Album: An Oral History. Vice Sports, November 30, 2015, accessed December 3, 2016 .
  4. Jump up ↑ Bob Shannon, John Javna: Behind the Hits: Inside Stories of Classic Pop and Rock and Roll . New York: Warner Books 1984. pp. 94-95. ISBN 0-446-38171-3
  5. ↑ The Wrestlers at Discogs (English)
  6. ↑ search query. Music Canada , accessed December 3, 2016 .
  7. ↑ Various Artists - The Wrestling Album / Piledriver. Retrieved December 3, 2016 .