The Wrestling Album

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The Wrestling Album
The Wrestling Album cover
Studio album by World Wrestling Federation
Released November 1985
Recorded 1985
Label Epic Records
Producer(s) Rick Derringer, Dave Wolff, Jim Steinman, Mona Flambé
World Wrestling Federation chronology
The Wrestling Album
(1985)		 Piledriver - The Wrestling Album 2
(1987)


The Wrestling Album was an album released by the World Wrestling Federation in 1985. It featured mostly recent theme tunes of wrestlers on the roster at the time. The Derringer song "Real American" was originally intended for Mike Rotundo & Barry Windham, then known as The U.S. Express, but is best known as Hulk Hogan's theme song. Most of the songs were produced by 70's rock musician Rick Derringer and Cyndi Lauper's then-manager David Wolff. Frequent Meat Loaf producer/songwriter Jim Steinman composed and produced "Hulk Hogan's Theme", which was used on the Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n Wrestling cartoon. Cyndi Lauper participated on the album as a backing vocalist on "Real American" and as producer of Captain Lou Albano's track under the pseudonym of "Mona Flambé".

The album was briefly reissued on CD by Koch Records, who briefly licensed the master rights from Epic/Sony in 1998.

Contents

[edit] Track listing

  1. The Wrestlers - "Land of 1,000 Dances"
  2. Junkyard Dog - "Grab Them Cakes"
  3. Derringer - "Real American"
  4. Jimmy Hart - "Eat Your Heart Out, Rick Springfield"
  5. "Captain" Lou Albano & George "The Animal" Steele - "Captain Lou's History of Music/Captain Lou"
  6. WWF All Stars - "Hulk Hogan's Theme"
  7. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper - "For Everybody"
  8. "Mean" Gene Okerlund - "Tutti Frutti"
  9. Hillbilly Jim - "Don't Go Messin' with a Country Boy"
  10. Nikolai Volkoff - "Cara Mia"

[edit] Miscellaneous

  • The album's tracks are bridged with commentary from Vince McMahon, "Mean Gene" Okerlund, and Jesse "The Body" Ventura.
  • Three singles were issued from the album: "Land of 1,000 Dances" in a shortened version, "Grab Them Cakes", and "Don't Go Messin' with a Country Boy". All three singles were issued in picture sleeves and used "Captain Lou's History of Music/Captain Lou" as the B-side.
  • "Captain Lou" is a cover of a song originally recorded by NRBQ; Albano had made an appearance on the original recording.
  • Albano was credited with playing all of the instruments (kayfabe) on "Captain Lou's History of Music/Captain Lou". However, he is actually heard playing the main leitmotif from Grieg's "Morning" (from Peer Gynt Suite) on the "History of Music" portion of his track. (Albano had played some deliberately amateurish piano on an episode of Tuesday Night Titans a year earlier.)
  • The "WWF All Stars" band credited with playing on "Hulk Hogan's Theme" are most of the same musicians that have recorded for Jim Steinman (the song's producer and composer) during the Bat Out of Hell and Bad for Good sessions.
  • Hulk Hogan claimed, as part of a 1985 WWF Magazine article on The Wrestling Album, to have played bass guitar on "Hulk Hogan's Theme" (Hogan had played bass in several bands prior to becoming a professional wrestler), but he is not actually credited as doing so in the album's liner notes.
  • In the same WWF Magazine article, The Iron Sheik is quoted as being genuinely upset with the fact that, because of the Ayatollah Khomeni's ban on music in Iran, no one in the Sheik's country of birth would be able to hear his contribution on "Land of 1,000 Dances".
  • Disco singer Vicki Sue Robinson is a guest vocalist on "Grab Them Cakes".
  • "Grab Them Cakes" made Junkyard Dog the only professional wrestler ever to appear on American Bandstand.
  • Roddy Piper's contribution to the album, "For Everybody", was credited as being produced solely by Derringer (kayfabe), in order to conform to the ongoing angle in the WWF between Piper on one side and anyone directly associated with Cyndi Lauper (including Dave Wolff) on the other. In actuality, Wolff was present for Piper's session.
  • Similarly, Cyndi Lauper's pseudonymous production credit as "Mona Flambé" may also be a Derringer/Wolff production with a kayfabe credit, although Lauper has produced most of her own albums under her own name. Lauper also appeared under the Mona Flambé guise on The Wrestling Album's cover, in the video for "Land of 1,000 Dances", and at the original Slammy Awards.
  • "For Everybody"'s original title, as may have been apparent to many older listeners, is "Fuck Everybody"[1]. The title and some of the lyrics had to be changed for Piper's version since the album was being marketed to the WWF's younger audience.
  • "Mean Gene" Okerlund had previously done an impromptu version of "Tutti Frutti" on Tuesday Night Titans with the show's house band, with Hulk Hogan sitting in on bass guitar.
  • Jimmy Hart's "Eat Your Heart Out, Rick Springfield" can be heard on the WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2006 videogame as the track serves as his theme music.

[edit] Other Commercially Released Albums By Wrestling Stars

[1995] Hulk Hogan & The Wrestling Boot Band - Hulk Rules
[2003] Randy Savage - Be a Man
[2005] John Cena - You Can't See Me

[edit] See also

List of music albums produced by WWE Records
Compilation albums
The Wrestling Album | Piledriver - Album 2 | WrestleMania: The Album | Full Metal | The Music - Vol. 2 | We Gotta Wrestle | The Music - Vol. 3 | The Music - Vol. 4 | Aggression | The Music - Vol. 5 | Forceable Entry | Anthology | Originals | ThemeAddict: The Music - Vol. 6 | Wreckless Intent
Single-artist albums
You Can't See Me (Cena & Trademarc)
Miscellaneous
Music in professional wrestling
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