Friday, February 23, 2018

Saturday Morning's Greatest Hits (?): With My Baby Tonight (1995)

By 1995, Milli Vanilli had become a music industry punchline. Of course, that didn't stop the perpetually behind the curve Vince McMahon from coming up with a similar gimmick in the then World Wrestling Federation.

Second generation wrestler Jeff Jarrett had been with the company less than two years when he tried to pass himself off as a country singer. Being that he lived close to Nashville in real life certainly helped. Anyway, let's take you back in time 23 years to when Jarrett tried to sell the idea that he had actually recorded "With My Baby Tonight":



It turned out that Jarrett's sidekick, The Roadie (Brian James) was the one who actually recorded the song, but it would be a year before the scam was finally exposed. In between, James & Jarrett left the WWF, but would eventually return separately. "With My Baby Tonight" became James' theme song, but insofar as I know, it never charted.

Today, Jarrett is getting set to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. James is the head writer for Smackdown, and better known as 1/2 of the New Age Outlaws, 6-time tag team champions. But, think back to 1995. McMahon convinced the country band Sawyer Brown to let Jarrett play with them at a PPV event. By then, though, Jarrett's one-man Milli Vanilli wanna-be act was dying.

No comments: