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  • Captain Lou Albano’s Music Tie-In

    As a fan and follower of professional wrestling, I am still in awe of all the mainstream coverage Lou Albano’s passing is receiving. It’s been over twenty years since he’s been seen on television screens as a wrestling character, though people do remember him as the star of the live action part of the Super Mario Bros. show in the 90s.

    As a wrestling manager in the WWF in mid-80s, Captain Lou was more of a cartoon character than anything else. That was probably the point. He was the fat guy with rubber bands all over his face spouting lines about his teams being often imitated but never duplicated. But that wasn’t why he’s currently remembered by so many after his passing. It’s because of Cyndi Lauper.

    In the early to mid 80s, Cyndi was on her way up as one of the first video created music stars. Her first hit single Girls Just Wanna Have Fun featured Albano playing her father in the video. Albano and Lauper met on a flight and were seated next to each other. According to pro wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer, Lauper was entertained by Albano’s wacky stories and asked him to be in the video.

    Their pairing lead to a short relationship between Lauper and the WWF. Lauper appeared on WWF programming including feuding with Albano on the MTV/WWF wrestling event, The Brawl To Settle It All. Lauper challenged Albano, whose character claimed that he was responsible for her success, and her wrestler Wendi Richter beat Albano’s wrestler, the Fabulous Moolah, for the women’s championship. The event helped the WWF move towards a Rock-N-Wrestling theme. Richter was also at the first ever WrestleMania.

    Lauper’s then boyfriend and music producer David Wolff helped produce The Wrestling Album which is exactly what it sounds like. Lauper herself produced Captain Lou’s spoken word track under the name of Mona Flambé. Wolff produced the record with Rick Derringer.

    After his passing, Lauper was quoted as saying that Albano helped her go up the charts “from 10, to 5, to 4 to 1, to minus 5 and back up to 1 again.”

    Here’s the video to Lauper’s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun:

  • Chart Chat 10/15/09: Britney Makes History

    Let’s start this week’s column with a pat on the back…for us. Not too long ago, we recorded our 1,000th post!! Yay us!! Now, back to the chart action.

    Michael Buble makes an impressive bow at #1 on this week’s album chart with his new album, “Crazy Love”. It’s Buble’s second chart-topper, and it’s notable because “Crazy Love” was released on a Friday, which means that it rang up it’s total of 132,000 copies in only three days. Buble beats out rock legends KISS, who score the highest-charting album of their career with “Sonic Boom”. That Wal-Mart exclusive enters at the runer-up spot with 108,000 copies sold. It’s the band’s second-highest one week total of the SoundScan era.

    Other notable debuts come from Toby Keith, whose new album enters at #3, the Backstreet Boys, who score their 7th consecutive Top 10 album at #9, and Bebe & Cece Winans, who return after a decade and a half off to land at #14 with their new album, “Still”. This week’s FAIL goes to Fat Joe. Despite allegedly making peace with Jay-Z while at the same time continuing his beef with 50 Cent, “Jealous Ones Still Envy 2” opens at an anemic #73, with just over 8,000 copies sold.

    The real noise, however, is on the singles chart, where Britney Spears’ “3” debuts at #1. While it’s still climbing the airplay chart, it explodes onto the digital download chart at the top with 255,000 downloads sold this week. It’s the third #1 single of Britney’s career, and it’s also the first song to debut at #1 on the singles chart in three years, since Taylor Hicks’ “Do I Make You Proud”. It’s the first non-“American Idol” song to debut at the top this decade. While I must say that this song holds absolutely no appeal to me, I guess a congratulations are in order for Britney.

    There’s some serious movement on the R&B singles chart this week as well, as several of the genre’s superstars make big jumps. Chris Brown’s “I Can Transform Ya” moves up to #18 in it’s third week on the chart, Usher’s “Papers” jumps from 60-17 in only it’s second week on the chart, and Michael Jackson’s “This is It” jumps onto the list at # 43 with only THREE HOURS of airplay in the tracking week. Looks for that to take a huge leap next week.

    Also next week, look for the soundtrack to the “Twilight” sequel to make an impressive debut on the album chart, despite the fact that this is yet another Friday debut.

    Oh, one more thing…congrats to Jay-Z, as “The Blueprint 3” becomes the 12th album to cross the million-sold threshold this week. Jay joins Taylor Swift’s “Fearless”, the “Hannah Montana” soundtrack, Eminem, Lady GaGa, The Black Eyed Peas, Nickelback, Kings of Leon, U2, the “Twilight” soundtrack and two Michael Jackson albums (“Number Ones” and “Thriller”) as the only albums to scan a million units so far in 2009.

    Here are this week’s Top 20 albums, according to Soundscan.

    1) Michael Buble “Crazy Love”
    2) Kiss “Sonic Boom”
    3) Toby Keith “American Ride”
    4) Barbra Streisand “Love is the Answer”
    5) Jay-Z “The Blueprint 3”
    6) Luke Bryan “Doin’ My Thing”
    7) Mariah Carey “Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel”
    8) Miley Cyrus “Time of Our Lives EP”
    9) Michael Jackson “Number Ones”
    10) Backstreet Boys “This is Us”
    11) Breaking Benjamin “Dear Agony”
    12) Paramore “Brand New Eyes”
    13) Alice in Chains “Black Gives Way to Blue”
    14) Whitney Houston “I Look to You”
    15) Bebe & Cece Winans “Still”
    16) Relient K “Forget & Not Slow Down”
    17) Pearl Jam “Backspacer”
    18) Taylor Swift “Fearless”
    19) Harry Connick Jr. “Your Songs”
    20) Miranda Lambert “Revolution”

  • Fergie Ferg Is The Latest To Buy Into The NFL’s Dolphins

    Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross is making headlines, and not necessarily based on what the Dolphins are doing this year. Ross has been successful at bringing in celebrity minority investors, with the latest being Black Eyed Peas’ star Stacy Ferguson, aka Fergie.

    Ross has been able to secure other music heavyweights like Marc Anthony and Gloria Estefan (with husband Emilio) as minority owners. He also has a partnership with Jimmy Buffet, who can’t become an actual investor because of his stakes in the casino business, which is against the rules of the NFL. Tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams have also bought in.

    You may wonder why Ross is turning to celebrities to invest into his team. Well, it’s not really about the money. He’s been quoted as saying that It’s more about the excitement in the community that it creates. Not every team can turn to Gloria Estefan and ask her to do a halftime show. Maybe the old band can become the Miami Dolphins Sound Machine?

    Expect Fergie Ferg to be doing halftime shows and National Anthems soon enough. But the buck will stop if will.i.am. decides that he wants to run the Wildcat.