She's Forever our Girl: 31 years ago, Paula Abdul topped the Billboard Hot 100

[Spicechinodiva]

31 years ago in 1989, Paula Abdul got her second Got 100 #1 with the title track, "Forever Your Girl."

The song was remixed for its single release.

The album version nears 5 minutes and didn't have a radio edit. At that time, it wasn't a secret that record labels would remix singles to get more money from the sales of the singles. 

This was also rush released by Virgin Records America, inc. because in February, Paula Abdul had her first big #1 hit with "Straight Up." 

Virgin was close to dropping her cause the album wasn't selling, and her first two singles, "The Way That You Love Me" and "Knocked Out" both flopped.

Head of A&R of Virgin at that time, Gemma Corfield,  said  for a new artist to have back-to-back flops is... bad. Paula even said Virgin executives threw up their arms and said, well, Paula, it might not work...

But her gay best friend said thanks to her persistence and her instincts, she knew Straight Up was a hit (hough her own mother called the track a throwaway).

Paula's instincts proved right, and in her home video for Virgin detailing Forever Your Girl, Paula said, We just saw Straight Up keep climbing even though we had no video.

The track itself hit #1 way before a video was shot. Virgin had to find another single to satisfy the new found interest in Forever Your Girl. 

The video itself features a young Elijah Wood, and other celebrities like Nikki Cox. 

I'll also share the driven part of this era. At the time, you had Madonna and all these sexed up vixen type pop stars, and here was Paula Abdul at 26. Being a role model for kids that parents approved of. It might sound shocking, but at one point, the average age of entering the music industry was closer to your 30s or mid 20s (versus the teenager like how it is today). 

 

[Spicechinodiva]

@JordanMiller

[Urbanney]

The Forever Your Girl album was a big album for my childhood 

Thank you for the reminder

[Jordan Miller]

What a cool introspective piece @Spicechinodiva! Featured it on the homepage. I love all the posts you've been creating lately

[Itscuzim31]

For those of us who like our pop girls with some choreo, Paula was/is amazing!! Some of the most impressive videos and performances eva 

[Illegally EATEN]

Shes never had a particularly great voice but she is hands down the best dancer with the best choreos.