Out There!:"Girls In Cars" by Robbie Dupree

Do you remember Robbie Dupree? His first single off of his self-titled 1980 album was Steal Away, a song that hit #6 on the Billboard charts and has appeared on numerous compilation albums. Very formulaic for that era known for a lot of adult contemporary stars peaking on the charts. The riff of Steal Away is actually very similar to the Doobie Brothers mega hit song What A Fool Believes. His second single, Hot Rod Hearts also was a hit song peaking at #15 on the charts. And then Dupree and his adult contemporary style faded away thanks to a little thing called MTV. And Dupree never had another hit song ever again!

Well, he never did have another hit song, but he did record a little nugget in 1987 when asked to contribute a tune to the second WWF wrestling album, Piledriver. His single, Girls In Cars, was the first track on the album and was used as the wrestling theme song for Strike Force (Tito Santana & Rick Martel). The track is classic 80's and super cheesy, so naturally I loved it. Although I'm not sure whose bright idea it was to use this tune for two of the older wrestlers on the WWF roster to walk down to. I've also wondered what the inspiration for the song's title was. I actually don't like girls in cars because you can't really get the whole scope of the beautiful women driving on the highway. They may have their windows down so you can see their pretty faces. But the body might not match the face, so what's the big deal about girls in cars anyway? Why couldn't Dupree sing about "Girls in Malls", or "Girls in Porn"? These songs could have had some great lyrics. Anyway, a video was released for every song on the Piledriver album including Girls In Cars, but for some reason I couldn't find it on the web? Strange considering how easy it is in this day and age to download any obscure video from my childhood.

In a related story, a few years ago while at college in New Paltz, NY, I happened to see a flyer attached to the local record shop window indicating Robbie Dupree was going to perform locally in an intimate setting style show. I assumed it was the actual man behind Girls In Cars, and would have loved to attend the show and make a special request to hear an acoustic version of the song. My buddies and I really wanted to go, but I think it was on a Monday night and there was no way we could miss Monday Night RAW during that period.

Ladies and gentlemen... A real gem from the world of wrestling. Girls In Cars from Robbie Dupree.