Paula Abdul "Greatest Hits (Brazil, Virgin Records, 848980-2)"

Greatest Hits is the second greatest hits album by American singer Paula Abdul. Released on September 26, 2000 by Virgin Records.

The album contains all of Abdul’s singles from her three studio albums with the exception of "Will You Marry Me?" and "Ain't Never Gonna Give You Up". It does, however, include "Crazy Love" which was previously only available on the Japanese version of Head over Heels, "Bend Time Back 'Round" which was included on the Beverly Hills, 90210 soundtrack, and the previously unreleased "Megamix Medley". By January 2006, the album had sold 138,000 copies in the United States.

Track listing

1. "Straight Up" (from Forever Your Girl, 1988) 3:52
2. "Cold Hearted" (from Forever Your Girl) 3:37
3. "Forever Your Girl" (from Forever Your Girl) 4:13
4. "The Way That You Love Me" (from Forever Your Girl) 4:01
5. "Knocked Out" (from Forever Your Girl) 3:32
6. "Opposites Attract" (with The Wild Pair) (from Forever Your Girl) 3:50
7. "Bend Time Back 'Round" (from Beverly Hills 90210: The Soundtrack, 1992) 3:57
8. "Rush Rush" (from Spellbound, 1991)  4:21
9. "The Promise of a New Day" (from Spellbound) 4:16
10. "Blowing Kisses in the Wind" (from Spellbound)  4:18
11. "Vibeology" (from Spellbound) 3:20
12. "My Love Is for Real" (R&B Remix featuring Ofra Haza) (from Head over Heels, 1995) 4:03
13. "Crazy Cool" (from Head over Heels) 4:02
14. "If I Were Your Girl" (from Head over Heels) 3:55
15. "Megamix Medley" 9:24
16. "Crazy Love" (from Head over Heels) (Japanese edition) 4:30

Paula Abdul "The Promise Of A New Day (Cassette Single & Video, USA, Virgin America, 4-98752)"

"The Promise of a New Day" is a song by American singer and entertainer Paula Abdul, recorded for her second studio album Spellbound (1991) and services as the album's opening track. The track, written by Abdul, Peter Lord, Sandra St. Victor, and V. Jeffrey Smith and produced by Lord and Smith, was released as the album's second official single in July 1991 in the United States. The song lyrically finds the singer singing optimistically about a relationship, with a vague sub-context of improvement of the world. It was also her first single released under her own label, Captive Records.

Despite mixed critical reception, "The Promise of a New Day" became another hit single for Abdul. It topped the US Billboard Hot 100 in September 1991, becoming Abdul's sixth and final number-one song as of 2025. Internationally, the track entered the top 10 in Canada, the top 20 in Finland, and the top 40 in Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Sweden.

In an interview with Songfacts, when asked how the song came to be, co-writer Peter Lord said, "Paula had an idea for the title and feel for the song and we built it from there."

The video was directed by Big TV!, a duo made up of Andy Delaney and Monty Whitebloom and of which would be the first of multiple times of Abdul working with them. The live waterfall and tropical footage were filmed on location in Hawaii, but Abdul was unable to attend filming due to prior commitments. Filming and production took place on July 8, 1991, in which Abdul and a number of background dancers filmed on a sound stage in Los Angeles, in which it would be edited in the video through green screen. The video would be released on August 17, 1991 on MTV as an exclusive, where it was shortly placed on heavy rotation.

The video attracted controversy due to the fact that special lenses were used to film the video. This method was in order so that editors could fit in more dancers but unintentionally made Abdul taller and a lot more thinner than what she actually was. The video was later mocked on In Living Color, where it was parodied as "Promise of a Thin Me" and took jabs at Abdul's singing voice and also fat-shamed her.

Tracklist:

Side A

1. The Promise Of A New Day (7" Edit)
2. The Promise Of A New Day (West Coast 12")

Side B

1. The Promise Of A New Day (7" Edit)
2. The Promise Of A New Day (West Coast 12")

All tracks appear on both sides.

Paula Abdul "Spellbound (Germany, Virgin America, CDVUS 33)"

Spellbound is the second studio album by American singer Paula Abdul, released on May 14, 1991, via Virgin Records and Captive Records. Production was handled by Peter Lord, Paisley Park, V. Jeffrey Smith, Don Was, and Jorge Corante.

The album, although receiving mixed reviews citing that it showcased her limitations as a singer, became a commercial success and topped the US Billboard 200, alongside cracking the top-ten in Australia, Canada, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Six singles in total were released, including the Billboard Hot 100 number one singles "Rush Rush" and "The Promise of a New Day", the latter becoming her sixth and to-date final number one single. Other singles included the US top-ten hit "Blowing Kisses in the Wind", "Vibeology", which Abdul performed at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards, "Will You Marry Me?", and the Canada exclusive single "Alright Tonight". The album is currently certified 3x platinum in the United States.

Following the release of the album, Abdul embarked on her first world tour, entitled "Under My Spell Tour", between 1991 and 1992.

Spellbound won a Grammy Award for Best Recording Package. The album art was art directed by Melanie Nissen, designed by Inge Schaap, and lettered by Margo Chase.

Writing for Entertainment Weekly, David Browne gave the album a C+ and remarked that its overproduction only highlights Abdul's limitations as a singer. In a retrospective review for Slant Magazine, Eric Henderson gave the album four out of five stars. He commented that, despite being uneven, the album makes Abdul "sound like a human being". In 2003, Slant Magazine included Spellbound in its list of "50 Essential Pop Albums".

The album debuted at number five on the Billboard 200 in its first week and rose four spots to number one the following week. It stayed at the summit for two consecutive weeks, selling 88,000 and 89,000 units respectively. The album distinguished itself by becoming the lowest selling number-one album in the Nielsen SoundScan era at the time of its release—a distinction it held until 2004, when Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below sold 86,000 copies while at number one. This was primarily due to the newly implemented SoundScan tracking system, which had not been implemented into every major music chain, thus sales were not entirely accurate. Nevertheless, the album became a best-seller and emerged as the best selling album for the month of June, spending 16 weeks within the top 10, and was certified three-times platinum by the RIAA in January 1992. Overall, the album spent 70 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart and was ranked as the 18th best-charting of the year 1991 (and 40th best-charting of the year 1992).

Tracklist:

1. "The Promise of a New Day"  4:32
2. "Rock House" 4:11
3. "Rush Rush"  4:52
4. "Spellbound"  4:48
5. "Vibeology" 5:16
6. "Will You Marry Me?" 4:24
7. "U"  4:05
8. "My Foolish Heart" 4:10
9. "Blowing Kisses in the Wind" 4:41
10. "To You" 3:31
11. "Alright Tonight" 4:28
12. "Good Night, My Love (Pleasant Dreams)" (bonus track; Jesse Belvin cover) 3:14

Paula Abdul "Cold Hearted (Single & Video)"

"Cold Hearted" is a song by American singer Paula Abdul, released in June 1989 as the fifth single from her debut album, Forever Your Girl (1988). It was written and co-produced by Elliot Wolff and reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming the album's third song to top the US chart.

"Cold Hearted" topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for one week in September 1989, giving Abdul her third US number-one single. "Cold Hearted" was ranked sixth on Billboard's Year-End Hot 100 ranking of 1989. It spent a total of 21 weeks within the Billboard Hot 100. In Canada, "Cold Hearted" peaked at number one according to The Record magazine and number two according to RPM magazine, while in Finland, in entered the top 20.

The official music video for "Cold Hearted" was directed by David Fincher and spent more than three weeks on top of MTV's video rotation list. It uses the album version of the song, with the rap section from the extended 12" version spliced in after the 3rd chorus. The inspiration for the video came from Bob Fosse's choreography of the "Take Off with Us" scene in the movie All That Jazz. Abdul dances for music executives with a group of semi-nude dancers. Abdul was wearing a black fishnet dress which exposed her belly button and was sporting a hat of the German "Kriegsmarine". The dance floor included scaffolding where Abdul and her dancers hang and dance suggestively. The video was filmed in Downtown Los Angeles where Christina Aguilera's music video for "What a Girl Wants" would also be filmed at.

The video and its "late-'80s energy" served as a visual inspiration for the music video of Ariana Grande's 2024 single "Yes, And?".

Paula Abdul "Forever Your Girl "Single & Video)"

"Forever Your Girl" is a song by American singer Paula Abdul from her debut studio album, Forever Your Girl (1988). The song was written and produced by Oliver Leiber, with additional production by Keith "K.C." Cohen. Virgin Records released it as the album's fourth single on February 20, 1989. "Forever Your Girl" spent two weeks atop the US Billboard Hot 100 in May 1989, reached number 28 on the Billboard Dance Club Play chart, and peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. Worldwide, it peaked at number one in Canada and number nine in Finland.

The song is about loyalty in a relationship. The female vocalist proclaims that, despite rumors that others may be interested in her, none of those matter because she will remain faithful to the man she loves; she will remain "forever his girl." The single version differs slightly from the album version, as it uses more of the background male vocal featuring the Wild Pair, Bruce DeShazer, and Marvin Gunn.

Eleanor Levy left an ironically negative review on this single for British music newspaper Record Mirror. She called it "a disappointingly predictable pop song".

The accompanying music video for the song was directed by David Fincher, and features Abdul acting as a choreographer and director of a children's performance. A young Elijah Wood appears in the video, playing the kid in the suit. It also parodies Robert Palmer's Addicted to Love video, with three girls dressed like the women of the aforementioned video.

Paula Abdul "Straight Up (45 rpm Vinyl Single & Video)"

"Straight Up" is a song by American recording artist Paula Abdul from her debut studio album, Forever Your Girl (1988). The song is a mid-tempo dance-pop song with influence from new jack swing. Written and produced entirely by Elliot Wolff, the song was released as the album's third single on November 22, 1988, by Virgin Records.

"Straight Up" became Abdul's first top-40 hit in the United States, eventually topping the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1989. The single brought Abdul widespread public attention and remains her biggest international hit to date, reaching the top 10 in at least 16 countries. The song was also included in her six compilation albums, released between 1998 and 2013.

The song received positive reviews from music critics, with Daniel J. Levitin's This Is Your Brain on Music praising it as "hold[ing] a certain appeal over many, many listenings." It also earned Abdul several award nominations in the US, most notably including her first Grammy nomination in the category of Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1990, and six other nominations for its accompanying music video, which was directed by David Fincher, at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards.

According to Paula Abdul, her mother found this song for her. She explains that her mother knew someone whose boyfriend was an aspiring songwriter, and she got "Straight Up" as an 8-track demo. The demo version was "so bad" that Abdul's mother was "crying laughing" at it and threw it in the trash. But Abdul heard something she liked in it and retrieved it. At that time she was a full-time choreographer, and on the side late at night she was recording music. The record label did not think the song was any good, but Abdul offered to record two songs they wanted, which she did not like, if they would let her do "Straight Up". The song was recorded at a cost of $3,000. Later a friend of hers told her that somebody with her same name was being played on a northern California radio station. "Literally, within 10 days I [it] sold a million copies." The song was originally recorded in a bathroom, and in the masters of the recording someone in the next apartment can be heard yelling "Shut up".

"Straight Up" was the third single released from her debut album Forever Your Girl, after "Knocked Out" and "The Way That You Love Me." While the latter found modest success on the R&B charts, radio station KMEL in San Francisco started playing "Straight Up" from the album. The label switched promotion "The Way That You Love Me" to "Straight Up". The strategy paid off, as "Straight Up" spent three weeks at No. 1 in the U.S. "The Way That You Love Me" was promoted a year later and became Abdul's fourth (of five) Top 5 hits from the album in the U.S.

One of the 12" versions was remixed by LA "Powermixers" Chris Modig and Boris Granich, known for their special Power mixes at Power 106 during the 1980s.

"Straight Up" attained breakthrough success for Abdul in the States. After debuting at number 79 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart on the week of December 3, 1988, the single quickly rose up the chart. By the week of January 21, 1989, the song reached number 13 on the chart, becoming her first top 40 entry and her first number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on the week of February 11, 1989, dethroning Sheriff's "When I'm with You" and remaining on the top spot for three consecutive weeks. The song has since spent a total 25 consecutive chart weeks, thus tying with her later re-released second single as her longest charting performance on the Billboard Hot 100, and was eventually ranked as the fourth biggest hit of 1989 on Billboard's year-end chart for that year. The single was certified Platinum by the RIAA with sales of more than one million units, and remained as her best-selling single in the country to date.

The song also attained international success, reaching the top 10 in at least 16 countries. In addition to topping the charts in the United States, the single also reached the top in Norway. It reached number two in Canada, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden, and number three in Denmark, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and West Germany. It also reached number five in Belgium and Finland, number six in Ireland and New Zealand, and number eight in Austria and Finland. In France, the single fell short of the top 10, reaching number 12. The single fell short of the top 20 in Australia, reaching number 27.

It was used as a lip sync song in the third season of reality competition series RuPaul's Drag Race, where contestants Raja and Carmen Carrera had to perform it to avoid elimination.

The song became so popular that it ascended up the charts before a music video had even been shot for the song. The black and white video, directed by American director David Fincher and choreographed by Abdul herself in mid-January 1989, won four 1989 MTV Video Music Awards for Best Female Video, Best Editing, Best Choreography, and the first Best Dance Video. The video features an appearance by her friend, comedian Arsenio Hall, whose popular talk show had premiered a few weeks prior to the video shoot. Djimon Hounsou also appears. Released later that month, the video at the time went into very heavy rotation on MTV, helping further Abdul's popularity.

Track listings and formats

Australia 12-inch single

1. "Straight Up" (Ultimix)
2. "Opposites Attract" (1990 mix)
3. "Straight Up" (single version)

French 12-inch vinyl

1. "Straight Up" (12-inch remix)
2. "Straight Up" (Power mix)
3. "Straight Up" (House mix)
4. "Straight Up" (Marley Marl mix)

US 12-inch single

1. "Straight Up" (12-inch remix)
2. "Straight Up" (Power mix)
3. "Straight Up" (House mix)

Japanese mini-CD single

1. "Straight Up"
2. "Cold Hearted"

Various Artists "Rock The First - Volume Three"

The third installment in Sandstone Music's Rock the First series is a brief sampler of some of the bigger hits of the '80s. 

Tracklist:

1. Paula Abdul– Opposites Attract  4:24
2. Technotronic– Pump Up The Jam   5:22
3. Jody Watley– Some Kind Of Lover   4:08
4. Men Without Hats– The Safety Dance   4:32
5. Devo– Whip It   2:37
6. The Escape Club– Wild, Wild West   5:43
7. Young MC– Bust A Move   4:23
8. Roxette– The Look   3:57  
9. Laura Branigan– Gloria   4:50
10. Exposé– Seasons Change   4:53

Distributed By – CEMA Distribution

Phonographic Copyright (p) – CEMA Special Markets

Copyright (c) – DCC Compact Classics Inc.

Toto "Till The End (Single & Video)"

"Till The End" es una canción de la banda de rock estadounidense Toto, para su 6º álbum de estudio, Fahrenheit.

La canción fue escrita por David Paich y Joseph Williams; como sencillo fue un éxito comercial, se encuentra en el 20º lugar en el Billboard Hot 100, y 37º lugar en el UK Singles Chart. La canción está muy influenciada por el Hard Rock, además de algunas mezclas de Pop Rock y Arena rock. La canción es completamente cantada por Joseph Williams, y como invitados en la grabación, las trompetas son intepretadas por Jerry Hey, Cary Grant y Chuck Findley.

El video muestra a la banda tocando en un espacio cerrado, rodeado de columnas. Todos los miembros de la banda se visten de blanco y negro clásico, pero con algunas modificaciones (como Joseph en el video también lleva un sombrero de vaquero). El vídeo también muestra a Paula Abdul (en esa entonces desconocida), interpretando a una bailarina.