Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of "Piledriver: The Wrestling Album 2"

Through the years, music has always been a very integral part of WWE. And if you look back upon the days when the Rock ?n? Wrestling Connection spawned the release of ?The Wrestling Album??in 1985, you just knew that a second musical collaboration was ?a few notes away.? Those notes became a reality 25 years ago this month, when WWE released their second musical album entitled ?Piledriver: The Wrestling Album 2.??(PHOTOS | MUSIC VIDEO PLAYLIST)

Spearheaded by Executive Producer Dave Wolff, Producer (and rock icon) Rick Derringer and WWE Music Director Jim Johnston, ?Piledriver??arguably was more of an ambitious effort on the video side as opposed to the audio side. There were 10 songs laid down on the album, and each one was distinctively different from the other. And yes, a few of those tracks have withstood the test of time, and are still recognizable today. But the video era of music at that time was such that it was a must-use outlet for WWE to showcase its superstars in an entirely different light, a light that shone on the singing arena, so the majority of the songs in the album were turned into music videos.

The title track featured the lead vocal being done by ?The Birdman,? Koko B. Ware, who credited a legendary WWE manager for the opportunity.

?I was very surprised when I got that opportunity to be the lead singer,??the WWE Hall of Famer said. ?But I have to give credit where credit is due, and that credit goes to Jimmy Hart; he had a lot to do with that. He knew that I used to sing in church (which I still do now). And when we were together in Memphis [Tenn.] I used to sing all the time. So when this opportunity came up, it just rang a bell, and Jimmy, who knows music like the back of his hand, suggested me for it.?

The Mouth of the South concurred.

?I told Dave Wolff that when I was in the Memphis territory I used to do a lot of the video pieces down there for their TV show, and one person who I featured was Koko, who had a lot of energy and charisma,? Hart said. ?Dave asked ?Could he sing???And I said yeah. He?s awesome and is a hell of an entertainer. So Dave met Koko [and I was in the room with them], then said let me hear you do something. So Koko sang some gospel, and Dave said yep, he can sing. So that turned out fantastic.??

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Source: http://www.wwe.com/classics/25th-anniversary-piledriver

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