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You may have realised by now that UNSONG is a feature that we usually reserve for our Patreon subscribers. Occasionally we’ll release an episode to general public to give y’all a flavour of what you’re missing over in the Unsung Record Club. Put simply Unsong is basically Unsung but with one song. This week we’re gonna chat about the song Real American by Rick Derringer, a tune best known for being Hul Hogan’s entrance music.

“Why have you dropped this on us in lieu of a regular episode"?” we hear you ask. It’s quite simple, really: after we recorded this we felt it was just so much fun that we wanted the whole world to hear it at the same time.

This song became well known because of Hulk Hogan, but the journey to how it even came into the purview of WWF, how it became Hulk Hogan’s theme song and why is actually really interesting. In fact, it even replaced a song that was written specifically for the Hulkster by Jim Steinman. Aye, that Jim Steinman. The one that wrote Bat Out of Hell.

The 80s was a weird time. In the WWF, Vince McMahon wanted his wrestlers to be rock stars, which meant he pulled shit like having Cyndi Lauper on the first Wrestlemania, and create this whole MTV crossover style thing with the Rock and Wrestling connection.

What should have been a 20 minute episode for us turned into a 40 minute banger so please, come with us into the world of 80s wrestling and Rick Derringer in this special episode of Unsong.