5 WWE theme songs that transcended wrestling

#4 "Badstreet USA" (by Michael P.S. Hayes) - The Fabulous Freebirds

"I want to tell you a story about a place you don't wanna be. This ain't no home sweet home, it's a home sweet misery."

In 1984, Michael P.S. Hayes, one-third of the Fabulous Freebirds in Dallas, TX's World Class Championship Wrestling, decided that as a rock n' roll tag team, they needed a rock n' roll theme song. So, they got one. "Freebird" by Lynyrd Skynrd. Obviously>

Aaaaaand, they also had to pay royalties for it. So, Hayes decided to write his own tune. And, so he did. "Badstreet USA".

It may quite possibly be the very first wrestling theme song written just for that specific purpose. If not, it was popular enough that not only did it become an "underground hit", as a Dallas Observer story on the documentary Back On Badstreet said, but...

it was popular enough in the wrestling circuit that it made original theme songs a must for every Speedo-wearing body slammer who followed in his footsteps.

While it never became a Billboard-charting hit, in the areas where the Freebirds wrestled, it actually sold pretty well - and not just among wrestling fans. This was just the kind of rock song popular in the 70s and it was actually really well performed and produced.

Even today, "Badstreet USA" if fondly remembered, not just by wrestling fans, but fans of Southern Rock of the 1970s