Ever since the dawn of MTV and Friday Night Videos, the music video has significantly impacted musical tastes and pop culture. It might not be as extreme as when the Buggles declared that "Video Killed the Radio Star", but there is no arguing that the music video certainly could make or break a song's popularity. So this regular Flashback Video feature will serve to remember some of the music videos from the great '80s decade that made an impact on me in one way or another.
This issue we will cover "Land of a Thousand Dances" by the WWF Wrestlers. As the WWF (now WWE) was sky-rocketing in popularity, they released The Wrestling Album in November of 1985. The album included some wrestler theme songs including "Real American" for Hulk Hogan, but it also included some fun/silly songs. One of those fun/silly songs was a campy cover of "Land of a Thousand Dances" best known for its 1966 version by Wilson Pickett. This was performed by "The Wrestlers" with some of the lyrics adjusted to be more applicable to that industry. Each line was delivered by a different WWF superstar until it broke down into a brawl instigated by Rowdy Roddy Piper. Would you expect anything less? The wrestlers seem like they are having so much fun performing and, being a huge professional wrestling fan at the time, I absolutely loved watching all of these guys do their thing. Even today, I can't help but smile whenever I watch this video.
Cyndi Lauper appears in the music video wearing a black wig and sunglasses as part of the band credited as "Mona Flambé". Meat Loaf also appears in the music video playing the drums. Here are the other WWF wrestlers/managers that appear in the music video:
Captain Lou Albano, Classy Freddie Blassie, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, The Fabulous Moolah, Howard Finkel, Mr. Fuji, Bret "Hit Man" Hart, "The Mouth of the South" Jimmy Hart, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, Mr. Fuji, Hillbilly Jim, Gorilla Monsoon, Mean Gene Okerlund, "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff, Cowboy Bob Orton, The Magnificent Don Muraco, Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, Wendi Richter, The Junkyard Dog, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, Brutus Beefcake, Nikolai Volkoff, The Iron Sheik, Luscious Johnny Valiant, Tito Santana, Barry Windham, Mike Rotundo, Arnold Skaaland, Randy "Macho Man" Savage, George "The Animal" Steele, King Kong Bundy, Haku, B. Brian Blair, Jumpin' Jim Brunzell, Uncle Elmer, The Missing Link, S.D. Jones, Barry O, Adrian Adonis, Terry Funk, Jesse "The Body" Ventura and Vince McMahon.
Surprisingly missing from the song and video was the biggest star of them all, Hulk Hogan. Even without the Hulkster, I absolutely adore this piece of '80s wrestling nostalgia. Here is the music video for "Land of a Thousand Dances" by The Wrestlers...
Previous to this, thanks to the Rock and Wrestling connection, there were several of the WWF wrestlers who had appeared in Cyndi Lauper's music video for "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough" from the 1985 film The Goonies. Also, this song made our list of Songs from the '80s with Dance or Dancing in the Title.
Hope you enjoyed another trip back to the '80s thanks to Flashback Video!