How Cyndi Lauper became a pop star — thanks to pro wrestling
nypost.comCyndi Lauper’s debut solo single, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” was flopping so badly that her record company had given up on it.But the singer and her then-manager and boyfriend, David Wolff, still believed in what would become her signature song.
Given only two weeks to make the single a hit, Wolff came up with the idea for her to partner with wrestling legend Captain Lou Albano — who played Lauper’s father in the “Girls” video — to promote her music via the World Wrestling Federation, the precursor to today’s World Wrestling Enterprises.
Albano would make sexist comments at matches or on TV appearances, and Lauper would respond with an in-your-face feistiness.“It worked,” says Lauper, 69, in her new documentary “Let the Canary Sing,” which premiered at NYC’s Beacon Theatre on Wednesday night as part of the Tribeca Festival. “It had to.
That’s all we could do.”The party anthem went zooming up the charts, and Lauper’s career took off with her Grammy-winning album “She’s So Unusual” — all while she continued to banter with Albano in a manufactured feud, make appearances in the ring and even “manage” wrestler Wendi Richter.
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