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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Rick Derringer

  • 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:

  • Friday Throwback – Land Of 1,000 Dances

    Ok, this is the wacky wrestling version of this song, but I didn’t really have anything picked out this week, and when you can’t fall back on Rowdy Roddy Piper, who can you really fall back on?

    This song was the lead single (if you can call it that) from The Wrestling Album which was released in 1985. That album featured help from Cyndi Lauper, Rick Derringer and David Wolff, who I believe was Lauper’s boyfriend. Wolff produces much of it.

    • You gotta know how to twist – Jimmy Hart was actually a member of the band, The Gentrys, who had a number one single.
    • RIP Missing Link.
    • Look at Mr. Wonderful kissing his biceps.
    • Really, the Iron Sheik is right. You’ve got to move like de de Sheik.
    • Is that Meat Loaf on the drums?
    • I think that’s Lauper in the black wig too.
    • Wow, SD Jones got a line in there.
    • Wow, SD got two lines.
    • I forgot Adrian Adonis was on this song.
    • Watching Bret “The Hitman” Hart dance in the background with those shades on was great.
    • Jeez, Uncle Elmer?

    I know that Wilson Pickett’s version wasn’t the original, but his was the most well known. I wonder what he thought about this version? And where in the heck was Hulk Hogan? Was he busy the day the recorded the song?