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.

Top Songs of 1989: #6: "Cold Hearted" by Paula Abdul

Paula Abdul had the #6 song in the country with "Cold Hearted". "Cold Hearted" was on Paula's debut album, "Forever Your Girl". Wikipedia said: " The album took 62 weeks to hit #1 on the Billboard 200 album sales chart—the longest an album has been on the market before hitting #1". So it was a slow build for Paula!

"Cold Hearted" was written by Elliott Wolff. (I just looked him up and he also wrote a guilty pleasure of mine: "Heart of Stone" (haha-hearrrtt) which was made famous by Taylor Dayne).

The video was probably the most memorable thing about this song.
And what a video it was ! Good Lord! Paula and her dancers scare the bejeezus out of a bunch of very stiff record executives. Once again, David Fincher of "Seven" and "Fight Club" fame directed this video--his style is instantly recognizable (his stark imagery using shadows and light seem to be part of his style from day one). Between the writhing and thrusting, one can see that Paula really can dance--she has got the skillz! Plus, she raps in this song which is tremendously enjoyable.