Top Songs of 1989: #4: "Straight Up" by Paula Abdul

Paula returns! She certainly was rockin' and rollin' in 1989.

I love the production on this song--the trumpet lick is key--"the da/dadada/dadaDAdada"...that is pretty much the hook of the song.

Things I love about the video to "Straight Up":
1. Paula's huge huge huge earrings
2. The lighting--("Fincher-ism")
3. The random man dancing behind a picket fence
4. When Paula does a modified grapevine step across the sound stage--I found out from wikipedia that Paula herself choreographed the video.
5. The presence of Arsenio

Things I enjoy about this song:
1. when Paula sings "ba-ba-ba-bye bababababyyye"
2. when she does this strange synchopated singing of "history....book"
3. the "break-it-down" part when she sings the "you are so hard to read/you play hide and seek." Got to say, it's kind of jamming!

I would imagine that when the record execs heard this song, they knew immediately it would be a hit. It definitely has that certain "something". It's catchy, it's dance-able...."Straight Up" spent three straight weeks at the #1 position. The song also won four 1989 Music Video Awards.

David Fincher, once again, directed the video. Those two were quite the pair! "Straight Up" was written by Elliott Wolff.