music friday: 1984

George Michael, "Careless Whisper". I'm crediting Michael here, but it's a bit more complicated than that. It was written by Michael and his Wham! bandmate Andrew Ridgeley, and originally appeared on a Wham! album. But when it was released as a single, it was attributed to Wham! featuring George Michael in some countries, and just George Michael in others.

Stevie Wonder, "I Just Called to Say I Love You". From the soundtrack to a forgotten movie, The Woman in Red. Wonder won an Oscar for the song.

Cyndi Lauper, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun". A bit of a cheat, since it came out in 1983, but it had its biggest impact in '84. The video stars Captain Lou Albano, leading to the odd "Rock 'n' Wrestling" angle that lasted longer than you might think.

You thought I was kidding about Rock 'n' Wrestling? On the very first Wrestlemania, Women's Champion Leilani Kai put her title on the line against challenger Wendy Richter. Richter's manager was none other than Cyndi Lauper.

Comments

[Tomás]

I got into wrestling in 1983. The connectedness of Cyndi Lauper and WWF was right at the same time, and it kept me interested a lot longer. WWF stars were in her "Good Enough" video for the Goonies Soundtrack. WWF stars made a music album. The Saturday morning cartoon used those songs--it might even of had a cartoon Cyndi Lauper. They were covering every little thing a 12 year old boy could be into, all at once.

[Steven Rubio]

As was also often true with music, as my kids got older, they introduced me to a lot of things. In 1984. I was only 31, so I wasn't clueless, but our daughter, who was 6, asked for and got a "Cyndi Lauper" haircut. I think it was a couple of years on before our son locked into rassling, but when he did, he was an NWA guy ... he and his best friends would dress up as The Road Warriors for Halloween. When Flair came to the WWF, we saw him and Hogan live in one of their first matches together. The crowd was about evenly split between Hogan and Flair fans.