In the wake of the Milli Vanilli lip-synching scandal of 1990, a lawsuit was filed by former Mary Jane Girl Yvette (Corvette) Marine, alleging that her vocals and Paula’s were blended on Forever Your Girl to come up with the final product.
Shrugging off the criticism was easy to do when Paula also took home a few MTV and American Music Awards for her trouble. The album eventually crowned the Billboard 200 as well, certifying Paula as a major multimedia star, although purists of all genres scoffed, saying she was just a pretty face with a thin voice. “Straight Up” and “Opposites Attract” were also top five R&B hits. Forever Your Girl’s title track followed “Straight Up” to the #1 spot, followed by “Cold Hearted” (boasting an extremely suggestive video) and “Opposites Attract,” which featured Paula dancing alongside an animated cat. Originally marketed as a racially ambiguous R&B/dance artist, despite being a Jewish girl from California, she quickly scored a pair of top ten hits on the Black chart (as Billboard called it back then) with “(It’s Just) The Way That You Love Me” and the L.A./Babyface-produced “Knocked Out.” Half a year after Forever Your Girl (her debut album)’s release, Paula finally hit pop pay dirt with “Straight Up.” Thanks to the utilization of a popular slang phrase and a video featuring some snappy choreography as well as a cameo from the red-hot Arsenio Hall (who was reported to be dating Paula at the time,) the song hit the top of the pop charts and became one of 1989’s biggest hits.
#Paula abdul straight up arsenio hall series#
While doing choreography work for music videos, TV series and film (she was a busy girl,) Paula began working on a demo to fulfill her dream of becoming a singer, eventually signing with Virgin Records. Blink and you’ll miss Paula’s cameo as one of Janet’s friends in the “Nasty” video. At any rate, Paula’s first choreography job was on The Jacksons’ “Torture” video (AKA the video Michael and Jermaine both sing on but don’t appear on,) and she gained even more fame for her work on Janet Jackson’s “What Have You Done For Me Lately” and “Nasty” clips, which broke the youngest Jackson on MTV and helped turn her into a superstar. Randy Taraborelli’s biography Michael Jackson: The Magic & The Madness, Jackie and Paula embarked on a torrid affair while conveniently forgetting one thing-Jackie was married. In addition to her musical success, she was a successful choreographer, working on everything from ZZ Top music videos to “The Tracey Ullman Show.” I won’t ask what the hell Tracey Ullman needed choreography for, but whatever that was, Paula did it!īorn and raised in California (and allegedly boasting a young Michael Bolton as her babysitter at one point,) Paula first made waves as a Laker girl-choreographing routines for the cheerleading troupe and catching the eye of Jackie Jackson, oldest brother of the legendary Jackson family.
We picked "Straight Up" by Paula Abdul, not because she's that much of a diva, but because it's a great song.While she’s best known today as a loopy (to put it mildly) reality show judge, Paula Abdul ranked alongside Janet Jackson, Madonna and Whitney Houston as one of the biggest female pop stars of the late Eighties and early Nineties. Spike Slawson: "I just kept imagining Arsenio Hall's prodigious index finger on my sweet spot and the rest took care of itself."įat Mike: "When I think of divas (the new Gimmes album theme) I think of Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, or Beyoncé, but their songs all suck. Just like all our tunes, Spike's vocal is the magic sauce that makes it good." He has an app on his phone that transposes songs into whatever key you want, so once we figured out where it was gonna work for his vocal, we banged it out quickly.
Here's what the band had to say about this cover of Paula Abdul's classic "Straight Up":Ĭhris Shiflett: "If I recall correctly, 'Straight Up' was one of the last tunes we worked on for the new Gimmes record. After forming way back in the Reality Bites era of the '90s, these guys are still giving you a reason to pogo to Paula Abdul, and with a new album out this May - the ironically dubbed Are We Not Men? We Are Diva! - they aren't slowing down. Thought you couldn't mosh your way through Whitney Houston's Bodyguard theme? Think again. Comprised of members of other successful acts - NOFX, Foo Fighters, Lagwagon - they bring together their collective wit and ability to reimagine pop songs as instant punk rock classics. Make no mistake, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes are a supergroup.
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